


Awakening of the Titans

by Hopeater



Category: Godzilla (2014), Godzilla - All Media Types, Godzilla: King of The Monsters (2019)
Genre: Aliens, Angst and Humor, Astral Projection, Blackmail, Blood and Injury, Corpses, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Dancing, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fighting, Friendship, Gen, Gijinka, Humanized, M/M, Married Characters, Minor Character Death, Misunderstandings, Old Gods, Other, Oxygen Destroyer, Prophetic Dreams, Psychic Bond, Siblings, Sign Language, Supernatural Elements, Swearing, eco terrorism, gratitious spanish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:15:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 31
Words: 43,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28817670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hopeater/pseuds/Hopeater
Summary: The Titans start waking up in a world that is not ready for them.
Relationships: Anguirus (Godzilla) & Godzilla (Legendary | MonsterVerse), Battra & Mothra (Kaiju), Godzilla/Mothra (Kaiju), King Ghidorah/Rodan (Kaiju)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 53





	1. Awakening: Godzilla

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! ^^ I've decided to post my gijinka Godzilla fanfic on AO3. You can also find it on Tumblr at hopeatermeetsgodzilla. Beside the fic, it's also where I post art of the characters, and some additional blurbs of context and backstory.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Godzilla wakes up.

His home was dying.

When he finally mustered the willpower to open his eyes, gills feeling filthy from trash that wasn't there when he first went to sleep, he took reassurance in the fact that the water was as dark as before, if not as clean and alive. It meant that the world hadn’t changed as much as he feared it would.

He slowly lifted himself up, water and fishes rushing and swirling around him. He then shot up, arms above him and legs undulating, slowing down only as the water became almost clear enough for him to see above it, large shadows floating above and creating ripples.

It seemed like the bugs- no wait, humans -were still fishing around here, which meant they were still alive. Damn it, of all the things he could interact with first when he woke up... Did he want to deal with the weaklings right now? No. However, did he think that giving them a quick scare would improve his mood? Absolutely. Who knew for how long he slept. With some luck, they would have forgotten about him. He slowly neared one of the larger shadows, and waited.

The shadow then got to where he wanted it to be, and he shot out of the water and above the floating construct the bugs- humans -used to travel waters, going back under the water as quickly as he shot out. The almost burning gulp of air he took was as satisfying as the shouts of surprise and fear from the smaller beings. Right. Around four times bigger than them.

As he made his way back underwater, he slowly thought about what he saw above water. The little worshipers seemed to have more or less forgotten about him, which wasn’t surprising as half a century alone was enough for them to have three generations, and honestly fine by him. They also seemed to have made some technological progress during his sleep, if the lack of sail or other manual ways to direct their floating structure said anything. And finally, once the satisfaction of filling his lungs with air washed off, he realized it was as dirty as the water.

He slowly made a mental list of every titan that could cause this much trouble, and the only ones who came anywhere close to be able to cause this sort of damage were the Fire Demon and the Golden Demise. He quickly dismissed both options. The Fire Demon’s powers couldn't affect water, and the Golden Demise would have blotted out the sky with dark clouds if it was their doing.

And it's when it hit him. The tiny ones. But they were so _weak_ , they couldn't have- and it's when he remembered that he had been asleep for potentially thousands or years. And the small worshipers were the only beings smart enough after the Titans to create civilizations in the first place. Without the Titans to remind them of how weak they were, maybe they...

Godzilla had just woken up after a millennia long sleep, and there were only two thing he knew about his changed-by-time home: it was dying, and the bugs- no, humans, no, _vermins_ -were the most likely culprit.


	2. Awakening: Mothra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mothra wakes up

She woke up to the feeling of being restrained by her own strings of silk.

She started moving around, slowly shimmying herself out of the now-obsolete strings. Four hands then lifted themselves up to her face, flexing the fingers as she accustomed herself to her grown body. She slowly got up, her non-clawed hands taking a hold of her aching wings as she pulled them over her, covering herself from the cold.

A familiar song then made itself hear. She turned toward the source, pleased to see that both of her priestesses were still here. They were carrying her backless robe, and she gingerly stepped into it as her fairies pulled the high collar up, tying it around her neck and covering her chest. They both then reached for her hair, and started braiding it in a loose braid as she sat back down again.

"For how long have I been in my cocoon?" She inquired.

"A few millennias, your Highness." The twins answered in unison.

Well. That was... unfortunate. "Have the other Titans ravaged the world while I was sleeping?"

"No."

She sighed in relief. "So they slept too?"

"Yes."

She didn't know whether or not that was a good thing. Last time all Titans had slept, a meteor had landed while they were sound asleep and wiped out entire species. She wasn't there around that time, but her parent had told her stories.

"You two," She suddenly said. Both of her Shobi Jin flied over to her out held hands, sitting comfortably in her palms. "I order you to stay on Infant Island. I have to make sure the other Titans and the humans are safe. Understood?" When they both nodded, Mothra let them fly to a nearby rock, before stepping out of her sanctuary, and taking flight.


	3. Awakening: Rodan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rodan wakes up

Lava spilled out of his mouth as he breached the surface.

He slowly swam to the nearest non-melted surface, entire body still feeling drowsy as he did so. As he heaved his body onto the platform, lava slid off his body, making him shudder at the drop in temperature. Obviously, being outside the lava would be colder than being under it.

He sat down on the platform, his clawed feet dangling in the lava as he took his surroundings in. The inside of his n'est had barely changed: Still a large dome lit from under by the large quantity of lava, bathing everything in an orange hue, with a rather large hole at the top letting in rays of blue-ish light in.

He took a breath of the hot hair before letting out a sigh of black smoke out, the smoke slowly swirling and fading as he started climbing the surface of the dome to a smaller cavity were he had put his clothes in. If he shuddered simply at leaving the lava, no way he was even going to take a peak outside without some things covering him.

Once he reached the area that was safer from the lava, he climbed inside it and started crawling toward the place where he had put his clothes, the ceiling too low for him to walk there. Once he did, he finally started thinking about how the world might have changed as he slept.

He knew that what he went through was probably hibernation, which meant that a lot could have happened. Did another mass extinction happen? He didn't really care either way, but he had really hoped he wouldn't be part of an hibernation. According to his parents (before they got killed anyway), hibernation meant that the world would have changed so much when he woke up that he had a good chance of not recognizing it. Apparently, it didn't change that much, if his nest was still the same.

After putting on his clothes and crawling back out of the tunnel, he looked at the hole that led outside, aware that it was the only way for him to see how much the world had changed. So he took a breath, and jumped. His large sleeves and the hot hair did the rest.

Finally, he was out of the volcano. As he landed at the top of the volcano, he looked around his island and in the sky. The bugs had gotten bold, building their cities even at the base of his nest. And it looked like they had found their way into the sky, too, if the fake metal birds were any sign.

Rodan grinned. Reminding them of their place was gonna be fun.


	4. Awakening: Ghidorah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ghidorah might as well be sleeping.

It was so cold around them.

They couldn't remember the last time they (weren't cold/could move/were free). How much time had passed? For how long had they been stuck in this ice? There was no way to tell the time, encased in ice and underground.

(The youngest child was afraid. Afraid that this was how it ended, how they ended, how he ended. He wanted to cry, to scream, to fly, to laugh, but all he could do was think. In the ice, he couldn't even look at his brothers for reassurance that things would get better. If only he wasn't so stupid, maybe they wouldn't be in this situation in the first place-)

(The middle child was mad. Mad at the weak king for imprisoning them, mad at the little queen for helping him, mad at the bugs for begging for their help, mad at himself for not trying to kill them harder, but not at his brothers. Never at his brothers. He was the one supposed to protect them, why hadn't he done something when he could-)

(The oldest child knew this was temporary. He was more angry about the fact that he knew his younger brothers were blaming themselves for this when it wasn't any of their fault. It was the fault of the worms that had imprisoned them, and the moment he would break out, they will have to pay-)

Ghidorah might have been cold, but their (resentment/anger/regret) has kept them awake while the world was sleeping. Who knew what horrors they would unleash (as a lesson/in their fury/in utter glee) when they were free.


	5. Awakening (from the perspective of Monarch)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Monarch is dealing with the Titans waking up.

Organized chaos was reigning at the Monarch headquarters. Everyone who could help with what was happening was at their post, collecting the sudden influx of data and trying to make sense of it. Everyone else was looking at what little footage they had over and over again, talking to their coworkers about the sudden change in situation.

What happened? The giant beings they were supposed to monitor had started to wake up during the last week, changing the situation from "monitoring the one Titan that wasn't hibernating" to "let's play the guessing game of which of the 17 sleeping Titan will wake up first, if even there's only 17."

It had started with the one who slept at the bottom of the Japanese sea and who's first action upon waking up was to literally jump above a boat full of passengers who took numerous pictures and videos of the phenomenon to post it on the internet. Their sensors indicated that he was still swimming in the area, and they promptly had it quarantined by the Japanese government to try and keep the creature here under relative control.

Then, it was the cocoon on Infant Island out of which what could only be called a moth Goddess emerged. Thankfully, not a lot of people beside the natives saw her, and she seemed to be benevolent toward them. But a photographer who was on the Island to take pictures for a documentary did take a picture of her, and thankfully told the authorities about it before asking them if he could put in the documentary, giving said picture to them when his request was denied. Said picture had been taken shortly before she took flight.

No, the problems started happening when a creature that hid from their sensors by hibernating in lava woke up and promptly destroyed 3 military airplanes that were flying above and a part of the fishing town of Isla del Mara. Thankfully, it's rampage stopped there, and there was no immediate death beside the soldiers, but the wounded civilians and sheer collateral damage from said rampage had landed them in hot water with the Mexican government.

And now, an eco-terrorist group had invaded their Antarctica base and taken hostage multiple scientists until Monarch gave them the means to free the three Titans encased in ice, with a time limit of two weeks before killing everyone there. Never mind that those were the Titans they knew close to nothing about, beside the fact that they were probably extremely dangerous.

Whatever was to come, it was going to be a serious game changer for humanity.


	6. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Florès talks to Serizawa about the ORCA, and Mothra finds Godzilla again.

"Hey, Serizawa!" The scientist turned toward the person who had just called him. It was Florès. Normally, the young man was busy fidgeting in the lab or typing furiously behind a computer, but he was now standing behind him, arms crosses and brows furrowed. "Can we talk for a minute?"

"Of course, but we'll have to walk. Is there a problem?" The scientist answered as the shorter man caught up to him.

"Kind of, yeah. So, good news is: I finished making the thing that would allow us to communicate with the Titans, and I'm currently working on it's programming. The thing is, there's practically no material to work with." Florès explained, gesturing mildly with his hands as he did so.

"Right." Serizawa answered. The only vocalization they had gotten out of the Titans was from the one who lived on Isla del Mara, and it was all echoing, angry shrieks that seemed to come from the Earth itself. "Do you know what little material you have is?"

"Probably means "Stay the fuck away from my volcano" or something." Florès answered. "I'm still waiting to get the sound-bank broken down before I program it into the ORCA. There's nothing else I can do in the mean time."

"I see." Serizawa answered as the two entered the main lab. Everyone was still frantically working. "Maybe you can strengthen our firewalls in the meantime? We really don't need a security breach, especially with what's going in Antarctica."

"Easily. Also, speaking of Antarctica, what's going to happen with the outpost here? Isn't everyone stationed here being held hostage by...?" Florès asked. Right. The programmer/mechanic didn't know everything that was going on since he was brought in recently.

"Alan Jonah and his group, yes." Serizawa answered before they parted ways, Florès to the computer that was reserved to him to start working on strengthening the firewall while Serizawa walked up to the digital map displayed on the screen. It looked like the Titan from Infant Island had stopped.

* * *

Mothra landed and the beach, wings folding behind her as she did so. Her other half was close. She could feel his presence as she walked alongside the beach, staring at the sea and singing softly, waiting for him to come. She was aware of the strange, metal bug that was following her, but paid it no mind.

He had chosen a strange place to sleep in. Well, she did suppose that he was one of the rare Titan to have claimed no territory to make a nest out of, but still. He could have gone to his sister, or Anguirus, or even her! It would have been much safer than some random sea.

Suddenly, her singing was answered. A low, rumbling sound that came from the water. She looked at the sea, and saw a patch of blue much more vibrant than the water. Her other half. Ecstatic, she ran toward it as the patch neared her at a rapid pace before he finally stood out of the water.

He opened his arms as she jumped on him, encircling his neck with a pair of arm as he lifted her out. The two rubbed their forehead together, sharing their joy over being reunited. When they separated, Godzilla took a moment to look at his queen's face before straightening up, face going back to it's usually stoicism.

"How long have we been sleeping?" He asked. Suddenly, a much somber air befell Mothra's face.

"A few thousand year."

"Shit. That might explain how the little worshipers have destroyed the planet so much." Godzilla muttered as his wife sadly nodded. She had noticed it too, how the air was feverish and how sick the sea was.

"Are you sure the humans are the one who did this?"

"No, but it's likely. Everyone else was hibernating. Like us."

"I know." Mothra answered. She did not like the implication that the ones she was protecting were the one responsible for the damage done, but it did make sense.

"Come on," he said as he let her go and she unfurled her wings, taking flight once more, "we need to see who else has woken up."

And the two left the Japanese sea, Mothra by air and Godzilla by water, unaware that they were being spied on as multiple humans lost their shit at the footage of the two of them cuddling and communicating.


	7. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Florès tries to work on the ORCA, and Godzilla and Mothra pay a visit to Rodan.

"This is ridiculous..." Florès muttered as he listened to the sound banks for the twentieth time. Whatever language the Titans spoke, the programmer was starting to think humans weren't meant to speak it.

The one from Isla del Mara only shrieked like it was the end of the world, the one from Infant Island spoke in bug-like chirps and buzz, and the one from the japanese sea rumbled and growled. It reminded him more of wild animals than any actual language.

"What's ridiculous?" Florès turned his head. It was just Dr. Russel. Unlike him, Russel was in Monarch since before the Titans had awakened as a biologist, and had confirmed that they weren't, in fact, just another branch of the _Homo_ genus. The mechanic sighed.

"I don't understand shit to what I'm supposed to be doing. How am I supposed to find a way to communicate with these guys? They literally growl and chirp at each other!" Florès snapped. Russel only nodded, understanding the programmer's frustration.

J.C. Florès had one of the most demanding post here and had accepted to be pulled away from his relatively normal life to help them understand the Titans due to money problems. There was also the ever-looming threat of Jonah and his group, who's deadline was approaching.

"It's alright." She said as she put a hand on Florès' shoulder, making him look up. "If you need a break, take it. No one is going to judge you for having difficulty with one of the most difficult task." The biologist reassured. Florès seemed to calm down a little at that, before going back to typing on his computer.

"Say, do you think Serizawa would let me take a break next Monday? I still gotta work out a few kinks out of the Orca." The programmer suddenly asked. Russel was about to answer, when one of their coworkers suddenly came into the lab to inform them of a big change.

The Infant Island and Japanese Sea Titans had arrived to Isla del Mara.

* * *

Godzilla shot out of the water, landing on all four at the coast of the Fire Demon's island the moment Mothra's feet touched the ground. They had arrived on the unhabited side of the Island, thank the elders. He could see a small, red silhouette looking at them from the top of the smoking mountain. He growled.

"Alright, Goji," started Mothra "remember, we're just here to check on Ro-"

"IS THERE A PROBLEM?"

"I DON'T KNOW, YOU TELL ME, YOU'RE THE ONE WHO’S HERE FOR NO REASON." The Fire Demon answered, yelling as loudly as Godzilla had when he asked his question.

"No reas- IF THERE'S NOTHING GOING ON THEN WHY HAVE YOU BEEN STARING AT US SINCE WE GOT HERE-"

"BECAUSE YOU'RE HERE UNINVITED. ALSO, THERE'S NO PROBLEM."

Mothra sighed. Of course Godzilla and Rodan would go and start provocating each other. "RODAN? CAN YOU PLEASE COME DOWN? WE NEED TO ASK YOU QUESTIONS!" The Queen asked, raising her voice so she could be heard.

For a moment, nothing. And then, the silhouette at the top shot up in the sky, before unfurling red sleeves that allowed him to gently float down to the ground.

Rodan raised his head, looking at the Queen, then the King, and sighed, serrated lips setting into a snarl as he crossed his arms. "What do you want?"

* * *

"Holy shit..." Florès muttered as he stared at the screen. The bot they had set on the moth Titan was now reporting what seemed like a tense discussion between the three Titans, the body language making it just slightly easier to understand. "Guess I won't be taking a break next Monday..."


	8. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Florès doesn't get along with his boss, and the three Ghidorah have a conversation about their impending freedom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: It took me over a year to write this damn thing.

“So... what’s going to happen in Antartica?” Florès asked, temporarily stopping his typing on his computer to turn toward the person next to him. It was Coleman, Monarch’s director in communication and technology, and also the one in charge of creating the ORCA on the technicality that he was Florès’ direct boss.

The other scientist sighed, not even looking at Florès. “Don’t you have work to do?”

The programmer shrugged. “I’m taking it slow since I actually finished the ORCA prototype yesterday. It can send out one of the planned sound-banks. I think it’ll convey ‘I’m the boss here!’? It should be something similar to the one the Sea Titan made after kicking the ass of the Mara one, anyway.”

Indeed, the encounter between the three Titans a few days ago had finished abruptly with a fight between the two male ones, with the aquatic Titan emerging victorious after slamming the smaller one in a wall.

“Also, fun fact: the Titans language apparently half-consist of sound-wavelengths, so I’m actually making progress on the actual project. You’ll thank Stanton for _that_ discovery later.” Florès nonchalantly said as he went back to typing at his computer, leaving his boss bewildered at his side.

“You finished it- they communicate on- why didn’t you tell me!? I’m your boss, Florès! I’m supposed to know about these kind of things!”

“Hey, don’t be bitchy with me. I asked Dr. Russel to tell you because, you know, I was going to my room to catch some shut-eye after three nights straight without sleeping!”

“Florès, no one has seen Emma since last afternoon.”

“What-”

“Sorry I’m late!” Russel exclaimed as she came to sit at her desk, panting. “I spent last night talking to my daughter, and I didn’t realize the time passing, so I overslept.” She explained, Coleman nodding and Flores turning toward her on his chair.

“I thought I asked you to tell Coleman about me finishing the ORCA prototype?” The mechanician asked, tilting his head to the side.

Russell shook her head. “You came up to, mumbled something in Spanish about Coleman, and then went to sleep. I thought you were cursing him out.”

There was a beat. “Yeah okay, that makes sense.” Florès admitted, going back to typing on his computer.

“What are you working on now?” Russell asked, watching the latino’s fingers type all over the keyboard.

“Personal project. It’s not like we have anything else to use for the ORCA.”

“What about finetuning the device itself?” Coleman noted, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

“Oh, I’m sorry, are you the one who spent two weeks slaving away on a device that can produce one noise at honestly ridiculous wavelengths because you didn’t have anything to program into the stupid thing?” Florès asked, half-mocking, half-hissing. “No? Shut up.”

“Two weeks isn’t a lot.”

“It is for _me_.” Florès snapped at Coleman, who gave him a skeptical look. “You guys knew I was a genius in my field when you hired me, now you deal with the side-effect of me being insufferable about it.” When his boss sighed in exasperation, he softened. “Also, I’ve been working on the ORCA non-stop for two weeks. I can assure you, the ORCA is going to be as good as I can make it until we get more data. Plus, I’m working with _the_ Sam Coleman!” The mechanic noted with awe in his voice, his boss perking up at that. “I’m gonna put in my 100% if I’m working with someone like that, even if the situation requires me to deal with what I can only assume are the old gods.”

“That’s the spirit!” Emma exclaimed cheerfully at Florès’ positivity. Indeed, the roboticist had been ambivalent about accepting the job until he learned he would be working in close quarters with Coleman, who was rather renowned in the world of technology. 

“But seriously,” Coleman asked, turning back toward his own computer. “What are you working on right now?”

“Programming the A.I. for a giant robot.” Florès deadpanned.

“Fine then. Keep your secrets.”

* * *

(Why are things going so slowly?)

[Patience, brother San. Brother Ichi is taking care of it.]

(But I miss you! And I’m bored! We’re stuck and I can’t move and it’s cold and I want to see the stars again and I-)

[I miss you too, but we can’t rush this. Brother Ichi knows what he’s doing, we just have to wait.]

(Oh! What’s the first thing we’re gonna do when we get out? Go for a fly? I wanna go for a fly! I’m so glad we finally successfully connected back! I mean, it’s not as good as being right next to you two, but it’s close! I’m not alone anymore!)

[Why didn’t you just shut yourself out? Would have avoided the boredom.]

(I didn’t want to miss getting connected back.)

{That’s really nice, San.}

(Brother Ichi! You’re back!)

[Any progress on the... urgh... _human_ freeing us?]

{I’m not happy about it either, Ni. But it’s stagnating. Apparently, we’re gonna have to do that ourselves.}

(But we’re frozen.)

{I know San.}

(We can’t move.)

{I am _aware_ , San. They’re going to make another group of human give us the mean to do so.}

[We’re going to need the help of _more_ humans!?]

{Suck it up, Ni. Apparently, spending millenias trapped in ice means the bug forgot about us.}

[I am going to rip the weak king apart with my bare claws when I see him again.]

(If it makes the both of you feel better, them forgetting about us means they're going to undo their own work, and we’ll get to introduce ourselves all over again!)

{... It actually does. Thank you, San.}

[See? You can be pretty smart when you put your head to it.]

(The smartest!?)

[Don’t ruin it.]


	9. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jonah shows Ghidorah how they're planning on freeing him.

“Human.” Alan Jonah turned toward the voice. Ghidorah was back, the three pair of black eyes and crescent moon marking on his forehead looming over him and contrasting the golden color of the shimmering specter. “I’ve returned to update myself on the situation. When are you going to free I and my servants?”

“Soon enough, we already have a plan made.” Jonah tried reassuring the specter, who tsk-ed.

“Really?” The soul took on a wisp-like form for a moment, getting away from Jonah as he got up only to reform, what the terrorist could only assume to be an imitation of the Titan’s hair floating around him like a halo. “Because it sounds to me like you’re making excuses for not being capable of freeing me.”

(Ichi might be stuck projecting his soul outside of his body to manipulate some lowly humans into helping him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have some fun with it. It also meant he had to lie about his brothers being slaves instead of what made two thirds of his being, but it had been San’s idea and Ni had seconded it, their ground being that they didn’t want some human to try and use their bond as a weakness.)

“We _do_ have a _plan_.” Jonah hissed through gritted teeth, Ghidorah giggling. “It’s just taking us time to put it into motion. If you would please follow me.”

Jonah started walking down a corridor of the hijacked Monarch base, the specter following him in his wisp form, apparently to avoid being seen by people he had no business with. They arrived in a room full of computers, the only person here a dark-skinned woman with her hair in a bun as Ghidorah switched back to something more humanoid.

“Kane?” The woman turned toward them, gasping in surprise when she saw Ghidorah, who’s only reaction was to tilt his head to the side inquisitively. “This is King Ghidorah. It turns out that Titans can project themselves outside of their bodies, and this is Titan we’re attempting to free.”

Upon seeing the golden specter’s inquisitive head tilt, Emily got up, back straight and shoulders squared, and bowed her head. “M- My name is Emily Kane. I am a hacker of the Titan Liberation Front, as well as one of it’s spies and biological engineers. It’s an honor to meet you, King Ghidorah.”

Ghidorah straightened his head, one hand reaching out to make Emily stand straight again. “You can rise, and the information is appreciated. Now, I believe your king wanted you to show me how you were going to free my body from it’s icy prison?”

(Ichi hadn’t tilted his head in confusion to know who the human woman was. He had because he thought the bugs valued kindness in a leader. Emotionally speaking, this Emily radiated warmth, while the king of this little group was as cold as the ice his brothers and he were imprisoned in.)

“That is right!” Emily declared, sitting bakck down and starting to type on her computers. “Now, I think Monarch got themselves a new chief programmer because I kept bumping into firewalls and redirections and passwords demands at some point we got a virus that would make the Power Rangers theme song play over the speakers non-stop-”

“Get to the point, Kane.”

“While I appreciate your efforts to explain modern human technology, it’s ultimately irrelevant to me.”

“... right. We eventually got some footage of yesterday.” She explained. “Monarch’s most recent addition, and I have reasons to believe he’s also the most dangerous, Julian Cyan Florès, finished the ORCA prototype yesterday. Here’s the footage.”

* * *

“- and if you turn the dial _here-_ ” Florès pointed at a dial with numbers circling it. “-you can either amplify or diminish the Titans bioacoustic’s imitations. Which is good, because the only sound the prototype can make is one that essentially means ‘stand down, I’m in charge here’, and the louder it gets, the more forceful it is.”

“On which Titan are you guys going to test it?” A soldier stationed at Castle Bravo asked from the back of the control room.

“Hopefully, with one that’s benevolent, like the Infant Titan, and not a bitch like the Mara Titan.” Florès deadpanned. “He might be the shortest of the documented Titans, but that motherfucker is still four and a half meters tall and filled with impotent rage, and he can _fly_ and takes baths in _lava_.” 

“For the Americans in here, that’s roughly a little under fifteen feet tall.” Coleman informed them, getting up as Florès sat back down. “Just with this, we have a tool that will allow us to keep the Titans away from major cities when they start awakening en masse. Any questions?” A beat, then someone raised their hand. “Emma?”

“What are the future plans for the ORCA?” Dr Russell asked, tilting her head in interest.

“Well, firstly: a widespread security system tailored for cities to keep the Titans from rampaging through them, with enough options to keep them at bay.” Coleman started. “This system will use a sound bank that means ‘our territory’. Hopefully, it’ll be enough until a more concrete anti-Titan security system can be found.”

“We’re considering electro-magnetism shields.” Florès added from his seat, Coleman nodding.

“What about communication with the Titans?” Dr Graham asked.

“Excellent question; Florès, I’m letting you take the helm again.”

“Thank you, Coleman.” The younger man stated as he got back up. “My current plan for now is that, once we have more material to work with, to create an audio-helmet with a microphone.” Florès started. “After that, I would create a rudimentary translation program that should, at least, allow us to communicate back and fort knowing the other’s intent using the final. That would be the final ORCA.” 

“That doesn’t seem very ideal-”

“ _Ideally_ , however,” Florès snapped at Stanton, his tone clearly getting the ‘I wasn’t finished’ message across. “I would scrap the ORCA all together and create a new form of Titan communication called the All-Speak, which would allow us to have direct and concise discussions with Titans, amongst other thing!”

“And how much,” Colonel Foster started, her hand going back down, “would both of these projects cost?”

“The ORCA would just require an increase in resources and _maybe_ some additional staff.” Florès started. “The biggest setback will be getting all of the Titans sound to put into it, but once the first official model is complete, we should be able to mass-produce it. As for the All-Speak...” the latino laughed nervously. “Let’s just say the first draft was ‘small computer that connects to your brain’ and it got more complicated from here.”

Everyone turned toward Serizawa, who seemed deep in thought. “For now,” Monarch’s scientist started. “Focus on perfecting the ORCA. If it’s a success, we’ll consider whether or not to start work on the All-Speak.”

“That’s reasonable.” Foster approved, nodding her head as Florès sighed in relief.

“In the meantime, Florès? If you wish to work on the All-Speak as a personal project, feel free to-” 

“DR. SERIZAWA!” A scientist that had stayed at their post suddenly exclaimed, interrupting the man. “THE TITAN ON IWATO ISLAND IS WAKING UP-”

* * *

“Turn it off.” Ghidorah told Emily, who just acquiesced and proceeded to do so. It wouldn’t do to anger a god, after all.

Jonah turned toward Ghidorah’s specter, gesturing at the screen. “This is how we’re planning to free you: one of scientists in Monarch has a daughter. We kidnap and hold the daughter for ransom, and force the scientist to steal the ORCA and bring it here. We’ll then use the ORCA to send a wake up call to your body.”

“Yes, that would work.” Ghidorah said after a short moment of thinking. “If there is something I hate above all else, it’s receiving orders. Make sure the sound is loud to pierce through the ice.”

“And when that happens,” Jonah started, chuckling, “You will get rid of the Titans that have imprisoned you, and existence will bow down at our feet.”

( _Our?_ Ichi Ghidorah would’ve scoffed at the insinuation that he and this lowly human were equals if it wasn’t so amusing. These humans, who seemed convinced he and his brothers were _benevolent_ and wanted to _help them_ , would find out soon enough just _why_ their ancestors where too scared to even _speak_ the name of the Golden Demise.)

“Oh, don’t worry.” Ghidorah started in a voice Emily could recognize as ‘forced neutrality’ “Humanity will get _everything_ that’s coming to it.”

* * *

Rodan woke up in a startle, his eyes staring up at the starry skies. He slowly sat up at the edge of his nest, frowning in a deeply-seated worry he couldn’t explain. 

His chest was aching, especially the lightning scar one the Death Song of the Three Storms left him a few thousands of years ago right where is heart was, back when he was still just a regular earth Fowl and not the Fire Demon.

Not as a warning, but as a reminder.

_You’re centuries too early for us. Come back when you’re worth looking at._

He shook off the impression that something was terribly, _terribly_ wrong, and went back to sleep.


	10. Awakening: Anguirus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anguirus wakes up.

Man, that was a long-ass nap.

He groaned, covering his eyes from the sunlight as he came out of his grotto, limbs still aching from the weird position he slept in, his shield heavy on his back, looked around himself and _what the fuck happened here!?_

What used to be a small indent in the earth had become a rocky ravine, easily four time his height and showing visible passage of time. He looked at his left, then his right, then up, groaned and started climbing the rocky surface, determined to see what had to the Island he lived on. Maybe if he found a high vantage point, he’d understand what happened better.

He flicked his tongue out. The air tasted weird. Dirtier? Warmer, too. He temporarily considered Rodan rampaging through his home and ruining everything because that’s what the Fire Demon is like, before dismissing the thought. He would’ve woken up, the rock would be smoother, and there was no lava.

He finally reached the top, looking around him with a distraught expression. What was formerly gigantic mounts that reached the sky had been reduced to (granted, still pretty big) mountains, the ground between them was full of fissures and canyons, and the water level had risen.

He took a deep breath, calming down as he made his way to the shore. It was probably just an hibernation. The previous generation had gone through one too, it’d be fine. And he had a call to make, to someone who he was sure could give him an explanation.

Anguirus sent his call, sat down, and waited. He was sure Godzilla was awake, and that he could explain to him what was going on.


	11. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Godzilla and Anguirus meet up, Madison explains why the alpha wolf theory is bullshit, and Florès helps Emma commit a crime.

_Come on, come on... just a little faster..._

Godzilla jumped out of the water, landing on rocky terrain and standing up, looking around. Anguirus’s nest definitely bore passages of time, but beside that, it seemed untouched.

“GODZILLAAAAAAA!!!” He turned toward the voice, temporarily switching to combat mode, before recognizing Anguirus’ spiky white hair and stocky build, relaxing as his friend ran at high speed toward him.

Wait a minute.

Anguirus tackled him just as he realized what ‘Anguirus running at you at full speed’ meant. The two of them rolled around on the ground, one laughing, the other screaming, before finally coming to an halt, Anguirus holding Godzilla in a bone-crushing hug.

Godzilla smiled, patting his friend on the back with the arm he could still move. “Hey, Gui. How are you doing? And would you mind sitting up?”

“Oh! Right.” His friend got off of him, Godzilla sitting up with a snort. “You okay?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about me, I’m fine.” He reassured his friend with a smile, the two of them laughing to themselves “How about you? Not too fucked up from the hibernation? Lasted a few millenias.”

“Oh, so that’s what happened.” Anguirus blankly stated, looking behind him at his island. 

Godzilla hummed in agreement, slapping his friend on the shoulder so he would pay attention to him. “Don’t feel bad for being caught off-guard. The only priests still taking care of Mothra’s temple are the Shobijin, and Rodan threw a hissy fit about humans spreading their nests over his.”

“Mothra and Rodan are awake too!?” Anguirus exclaimed, startling Godzilla.”

“... Oh yeah, probably should’ve opened with that. Mothra is doing fine, by the way. Just checking on her brother to make sure the asshole hasn’t woken up because the bugs have been wrecking the planet.”

Anguirus nodded. Battra _was_ kind of an asshole, especially toward humans. “And Rodan?”

Godzilla groaned. “Still a bitch who refuses to leave his island.” Anguirus hummed hesitantly. “What.”

“I mean... his mate _did_ die...”

“Mothra dies all the time, and you don’t see me crawling at the bottom of the Ocean and trying to claw off the face of anyone who tries to get too close when that happens.” Godzilla deadpanned, to which his friend just shrugged.

“Mothra doesn’t stay dead. And you don’t have a set territory. And you _do_ become more grouchy-”

“Alright, alright.” Godzilla angrily snapped at Anguirus, who snorted. “Still, my point stands. Even before hibernation, it had been a millennia and a half. He can’t just spend the rest of his life soaking in lava and denying we were ever friends.”

“Look, you know Rodan, and how he gets when things don’t go his way. And Quetzacoatl dying was like, the tip of the iceberg on what went wrong that day.” Anguirus reminded Godzilla, who huffed at the memory of what had been the worst day of Rodan’s life. “Just- all of what happened would be a lot for everyone, even a Guardian like Mothra. So imagine the toll for Rodan-”

“Alright, I get your point.” Godzilla finally admitted, letting himself fall the the ground.

Anguirus nodded in satisfaction. “Anyone else woke up?”

“No, just the four of us, plus everything on the monkeys’ island. Might soon be five, what’s with Battra having a sixth sense for when humans go too far for their own good.”

“... Is the situation that bad?”

“I mean, you can’t tell me you haven’t noticed the air getting warmer.” Godzilla growled. “At that rate, I’m gonna have to kick Ghidorah’s collective ass _again_ in a few centuries.”

Anguirus snorted, slapping his friend on the back as said friend smiled. “Don’t worry. If that ever happens, we should’ve all recovered from the hibernation by then.”

“Mh. I’m still gonna go check once I’m done catching you up on things.”

* * *

“Madison!” The girl snapped out of her thinking, covering the doodles of animalistic humans _(no she was not a furry fuck you dad)_ as the teacher called her.

She sighed, exasperated. “What?”

“I would appreciate if you listened to my class instead on drawing fantasy characters, you damned little troublemaker.” Her teacher hissed, to which Madison raised an eyebrow.

She pushed the sheet portraying a fight between a bird-like creature and a lizard-like one to the side, the scene having come to her in a dream a while ago, and looked at her teacher. “Alright, mind repeating the question?” 

The teacher grumbled, but repeated himself nonetheless, baffling Madison in the process. “Who first found out about alpha wolf dynamics?”

“... It was first theorized by Rudolf Schenkel in 1947, and the only thing that experience proved is that if you separate individuals from their group and throw them up against unrelated ones in an unfamiliar environment, they’ll fight to know who’s supposed to be in charge.” Madison deadpanned, baffling her teacher.

“What-”

“The truth is that wolves are pack animals, care about each other, the pack leaders are often the eldest with the younger ones defending them, and if one gets thrown out of- or separates from- the group, they’ll quickly die.”

The teacher sputtered, clearly caught off-guard. “Well, I-”

“Oh, and by the way? Me drawing instead of listening to you perpetuate outdated theories about animal behavior does _not_ mean I’m a troublemaker.” Madison finished, somehow looking down at her teacher despite being seated. “It just means that my dad is a zoologist, and that you’re a bad teacher.”

“Madison Russell is required at the reception.” The intercom suddenly said, bursting the bubble. The girl groaned as she got up, slinging her bag on her shoulder and getting out of the classroom, flipping off her teacher just as she closed the door.

“Alright, what did I do this ti-” The twelve years old came to an halt, eyes widening in terror. The receptionist was dead, a small puddle of blood starting to form on the floor. A man with slicked hair, a white jacket with ‘T.L.F.’ written on the back, and a gun was standing here.

He pointed the gun at her. “Madison Russell, is it? I suggest you follow me.”

* * *

“Florès?” The mechanician turned toward Dr. Russell, who seemed more worried than usual as she closed the door behind you. “I need you to give me the ORCA. My daughter has been kidnapped.”

“... ¿Qué?”

“H- Hold on. Please read this.” The scientist rifled through her scientist coat, taking her phone out and showing it to Florès, who took it and frowned as he read through it. There was a video file attached to it, but he didn’t need to watch it to know the email was the real deal.

“... Esos _cabrones_.“ He hissed out, before turning toward Emma. “Look, I can’t- I can’t just give you the ORCA.” Florès started. “Both Monarch and I already in hot enough waters with the government. If I go behind their back and help an eco-terrorist group free three Titans from their sleep, everything’s gonna get fucked up-”

“You- you’re twenty-three, how did you get into trouble with the-”

“That’s not important- look, you can’t tell anyone about this.” Florès then opened one of his desk drawers, taking out a small, rectangle shaped device out of it and showing it to Russell. “You can’t tell anyone I made this or where you got it.”

“What is that?”

“Downsized version of the ORCA. A prototype I made for the final model in case the audio-helmet doesn’t work. It works exactly like the protoype, but...” Florès shrugged. “Smaller. Take this, and go save your daughter.”

Emma frowned, looking at the younger man. “And you’re not afraid they’re going to know you had a hand in this through the security cameras and microphones?”

“Oh please,” the latino dismissed. “I hacked those twenty minutes into arriving at Castle Bravo. The only way to know what’s going on in my lab is by coming to check on me. These guys really need better tech security.” He softened “You think that’ll be enough to get your daughter back?”

“It’ll have to do.” Emma stated, taking the device from the mechanic and putting it in her pocket. “I can’t thank you enough for this.”

“Keeping your mouth shut about where you got the mini-ORCA will be enough, in this case.” He stated as he started pushing Emma toward the door. “Lie and say you made it yourself based on the plans I have if you want, but me helping you commit treason for your daughter is _not_ coming out of my working space. Got it!?”

“Got it.”


	12. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ghidorah is freed.

Emma took a deep breath, fiddling with the can of pepper spray she kept with her in case of self-defense as she eyed the helicopter pilot. _It was now or never._ Right now, they were on way to San Francisco, Serizawa having given Emma the permission to leave due to her daughter going missing. The plan, of course, was all other.

“Hey.” The scientist started, putting a hand on the pilot’s helmet and getting it off.

The pilot turned toward her, consterned. “Ma’am, I need that- ACK!” Emma sprayed the pepper spray in his face, blinding him before she reversed her grip and hit him as hard as she could in the face with the can.

The pilot fell to the ground, unconscious as Emma took his place. She immediately changed course, heading for Antartica. She took a deep breath. _Hang on Madison, I’m coming!_

* * *

Madison quickly slipped out of her cell, shivering and pulling her sweater closer to her. She had memorized the guard’s rounds, and they hadn’t taken her hairpins out, and she needed to figure out where she was.

She quickly walked across the base, looking around. They were multiple sideway hourglasses symbols stamped across the corridors, the word ‘monarch’ in all caps written underneath it. A few had colorful tags reading ‘Titan Liberation Front’ across them, the paint clearly more recent than the symbols. She just needed to find a map of the place.

She quickly hid as a pair of guards passed by, holding her breath until they were gone. She breathed a sigh of relief, and saw a door hanging half-open. She looked around her, and made a beeline for it.

As Madison hid behind the door, having heard guards coming by, she looked at the inside of the room. And nearly threw up. There was a small mountain of corpses here, most of them starting to freeze over from the cold and decompose from the lack of care. “Oh, god...”

“Well, what are you doing here?” Madison jumped, turning toward the the voice and shrinking in terror at what she saw. A strange, towering golden spirit with three pairs of pitch black eyes and what looked like an upside-down crescent moon on it’s forehead. It towered over her, tendril-like hair moving behind it’s head as if they were underwater.

And looking at it filled Madison with a bone-deep, primal _fear_. “Wh- What are you?” The spirit’s bell-like giggle did not do anything to assuage that fear.

“Why, I’m Ghidorah, of course!” The spirit informed her, a clawed hand attached to a long arm suddenly manifesting as it did so. The spirit’s claw tilted Madison’s head up, forcing her to make direct eye contact with it as an electric shock ran through her body. “And you would be?”

(Ichi would think about the fact that he could physically interact with this tiny human in his intangible spirit form later. Probably between getting out of here and killing the weak king. For now, he had to play a _role_ , and if he had to defend the only human who had the good sense to fear him from the idiots who did not to play it convincingly, then so be it.)

“I- I’m Madison Russell.”

“Madison Russell...” Ghidorah tilted it’s head, it’s eyes blinking in quick succession. “Interesting. So you’re the human child... I thought you were supposed to be in a cage?”

The girl steeled herself. “I escaped. And I’m not going back until I know what’s going on! For example: what are you!? A ghost?” She whispered-yell.

Ghidorah giggled again. “No, not exactly. You are aware of what astral projection is, yes?” Madison nodded. “As for what I am, I believe the closest word you humans have is ‘god’.”

“... I see. And why are you talking to me?”

(The little human was much more wary and perceptive than the others, but she was also younger. Exploiting that should be easy, he just needed to channel his inner San, maybe cut down on the lying a bit, and think about the deplorable state his brothers’ psyches were in when he re-established the connection-)

“I’m just trying to get out of my icy prison, along with my brothers.” Ghidorah started, its eyes taking a downturned quality to them. _Was it... sad?_ “Other gods, jealous of our power and bond, tricked us, and froze us within the ice of this place. We just want to get out and feel the sun on our face again.” It seemed to cheer up at that. “And that’s where you come in.”

Madison lowered a guard just a little bit. “Okay... how?”

“I asked the humans living here to help me free myself, but I had no idea they would kidnap you! Honest!” Ghidorah reassured her, claws grabbing her wrists and dragging her up. “But one of your parents- the female one- has come here to free you. Come on, let’s go.”

“Wait, my mom’s here!?” Madison exclaimed, baffled. All she knew about her mother’s current job was that it was 1) governmental, and 2) very secret. Did this have something to do with it?

Ghidorah giggled once again. “Yes! And she is waiting for you! Let’s go!” The specter took a wisp like form, some of it’s tendrils wrapped around Madison’s arms, dragging her behind it and outside of that horrible room.

She stumbled a bit, but followed behind it, the two speeding through corridors. Finally, they arrived before a locked door, Ghidorah taking back a more humanoid form and phasing through it. When the door opened a few minutes later, Madison rushed past the man that had opened it, throwing herself at her mother. “Mom!”

“Madison!” Emma exclaimed, hugging her daughter as tightly as she could. “Are you alright? Did they hurt you?”

“I- I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” Madison reassured her mother, sending a doubtful look at Ghidorah, who seemed to be in an argument with the old man that had opened the door, about whether or not it should’ve brought her here. “Do you know what that is?” She asked her mother, pointing at the specter.

“I... believe that would be one of the Antartica Titans.” Emma started. “We don’t know a lot about the them, but apparently, they have psychic powers.”

“Is _that_ how you’re calling us, now?” Ghidorah asked, turning toward the two Russell with an inquisitive head tilt.

“I-” Emma turned toward her daughter, who nodded. Madison didn’t know _how_ , but she knew Ghidorah was sincere with at least this question. “Yes. It was the most appropriate word we could find to describe your kind.”

Ghidorah’s eyes narrowed, but the specter otherwise didn’t change. “Where did that word come from?”

“It’s how the parents of the Gods are called, in Greek mythology. It’s also used as an adjective for ‘big’.” Emma explained, the spirit straightening it’s posture and eyes widening into their normal form. 

(The predecessors of those who rule the universe? Oh, Ichi liked that one, at least enough to allow the mistake that he and the weak king were of the same breed. He’d have to remember it, his brothers would surely like it too.)

“I see.” The specter finally said, a hint of satisfaction in it’s voice. “Yes, Titan will do nicely.”

“Well,” the old man suddenly started, Emma hugging her daughter just a bit tighter as he spoke. “Now that you have your daughter back, where’s the ORCA? Because I don’t see anything.”

“The ORCA,” Emma started, getting out the device Florès had given her out of her bag “is right here.”

Madison watched as the old man raised an unimpressed eyebrow, while Ghidorah tilted it’s head in confusion. “I thought it was bigger.” The specter commented.

The old man snarled. “Do you think I’m a fool, Dr. Russell?”

“Well, seeing as you’re trying to free three creatures no one knows anything about, and that you had perfectly good hostages you decided to kill before the time was up forcing you to abduct my daughter, yes.” Emma deadpanned, face not showing any emotions. “And- it’s a prototype for the ORCA’s final model I stole from Florès.” She explained. “He created it to make sure he could effectively downsize something as complex as the ORCA.”

“We’ll see about that. You two, follow me.” The old man told Emma and Madison, the three getting out of the room. They quickly made their way to an observation chamber, the window giving them an excellent view on a gigantic, seemingly glowing glacier where three shadows were visible. “Well? What are you waiting for? You want your daughter back, don’t you?”

Emma narrowed her eyes, but turned on the device, and turned the frequency up to the point nothing else could be heard as everyone looked at the glacier. In the suspense of waiting, no one noticed a terrifying smile etching itself onto Ghidorah just as he faded away.

* * *

A sound burrowed itself deep in the ice, artificial and deafening and awakening the bodies of the three creatures stuck within it.

{Brothers? It’s time.}

Three pairs of red eyes opened.

[Fucking finally.]

Fingers twitched, creating small cracks in the ice.

(Alright! On three?)

Small, microscopic cracks spread, reaching the surface of the glacier.

{[(One...)]}

The microscopic contact with the outside was all they need to start absorbing energy.

{[(Two...)]}

Energy flowed from outside to their heart and to their fingertips.

{[(THREE!)]}

They released the energy, and the ice exploded in a flash of lightning.


	13. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ghidorah and Godzilla fight

Ichi shook his head, bits and pieces of ice falling off of him as he dragged himself onto a higher surface. He stood up, looking around him. First order of business: find his brothers. “Ni? San? Where are you?” San needed physical input to situate himself.

[I’m fine, and will be there soon. Just let me warm myself up a bit.] Ichi sent a wave a reassurance to Ni, giving the okay. The weak king wasn’t there _(yet)_ so they could take a second to get their bearings back.

“Uh... look up?” Ichi raised his head in confusion, eyebrows rising up in shock when he saw San, looking down at him from a higher up surface.

“How did you- Get down from here, San!” Ichi yelled, the youngest brother nodding wordlessly and sliding down the slope. He was still giggling to himself when his older brother angrily grabbed his arm and dragged him close.

“Sorry, brother Ichi.” San said with a shrug as Ni came into view. “Hi, Ni! Wow, you look grumpy.”

Indeed, Ni looked even grumpier than usual. [It’s cold and I can barely gather energy and I have a headache from the soundwave and there’s a chunk of ice stuck in my pants-] “I hate it here.” Was what he finally settled on after his psychic tirade. “Can we just go? Maybe sink an island or two with a storm for warmup?”

“We still need to gather enough energy to travel, Ni.” Ichi reminded him, getting a groan from him as he was also dragged close. “Quit complaining, it’ll only take a few hours.”

“We don’t have a few hours.” San suddenly informed his brothers.

Ichi looked at him, looking unimpressed. “And why would that be?”

“Because-” A jet of blue fire suddenly burst out of the ice, startling Ghidorah and making them a few steps back, Ni immediately going to stand before his brothers for defense.

A few seconds later, the weak king emerged, long, wet hair drying in a few seconds from the leftover heat. “Ghidorah.” He hissed.

“... Godzilla.” Ichi answered disdainfully as Ni hissed right back at him and San hid behind his older brother further, shaking.

(Because... the weak king has been patrolling the area since yesterday.) San finally informed them telepathically, an air of resignation hovering over his corner of their telepathic link.

{Why didn’t you say anything earlier!?}

(I tried to yesterday.)

[Brother San.]

(Yeah, what is it?)

[The weak king possibly showing up just after we _finally_ free ourselves is NOT a ‘guess what’ situation!]

(Don’t get angry at me, _you’re_ the one who didn’t want to know anything!)

{Ni, San, now is not the time for bickering.} Ichi cut them off, eyes narrowing at Godzilla. {It looks like we’re gonna have to fight. San: you’re on lookout. Ni: focus on gathering energy while I distract him. The moment it looks like he’s going to attack, I want you to attack right back. Keep him on his toes while I start gathering enough energy to teleport us.}

[How do you know he won’t attack the moment you opens your mouth?] It took Ichi a moment to remember Ni’s psychic powers weren’t nearly as developed as his, but by the time he remembered, San was already half-way through his answer.

(Because he’s tired. _Very_ tired. Quite a bit more than us, actually.)

{Looks like we’re not the only ones who slept while humanity tried to rise above, brothers.} Ichi smiled as he took a step forward, Godzilla growling at him. _This should be easy._ “Finally came to submit to us?”

“Fuck off with that shit.” Godzilla snapped right back, hair flashing brightly at the outburst. “Here’s your options: you quietly stay here and don’t do shit while I go wake up Scylla and you triple-fucks get frozen again with minimal damage for all parties involved, or I pull out you entrails and skip rope with them.”

[I’m gonna kill him.]

{Patience. Him trying to negotiate proves he’s not in form to fight us right now.} Ichi cackled, making sure all of Godzilla’s attention was on him, and not on Ni who was concentrating, or San who had climbed to a vantage point. “Oh please, you’ve never beaten us on your own before. You’ve always had the help of your little moth, or had slaves following your every orders baiting us.”

None of the Ghidorah were sure Godzilla _not_ jumping them at that was a testament of how tired he was, or of a patience he developed while they were asleep. This said, he did narrow his eyes and bared his teeth, a low growl building up in his throat. “And there’s always three of you trying to fuck everything up.” He noted bitterly. “Doesn’t it get tiring for your brothers to not have free will?” Ichi closed his eyes at that, outrage belonging to his brothers filling his being.

[Did he just-!?]

(That _bitch_!)

[Alright, how am I killing him? I kind of just want to go for the head.]

(No, draw it out and make him beg for death with how much pain you’re putting him in.) 

[How much pain are we talking about?]

(I’m thinking make lightning run directly through him starting by his gills, and amplify it gradually?)

{Ni, San, while I am loving the both of you indulging in your inner sadists, we have more important things to focus on.}

[At this point, it doesn’t really matter. I’ve gathered enough energy to fight him physically.]

(And he’s on the edge of snapping. You just need to make him a bit angrier.)

{Well, San, we’re standing right in front of him and I’m telling him how weak he is. That used to be enough to make him attack in a blind rage. Do either of you have suggestion?}

[You let me jump him.]

{Very tempting idea, but if you just lunge at him, he’ll be able to counterattack quite easily. San?}

(You either tell him how bad of a king he is, or you tell him how weak his little nap made him.)

{Let’s go with that. Any objections Ni?}

[I’m not going to fight him.]

(Once Ichi is done enraging him, you’ll get your fight.)

[Then, I have no objections.]

Ichi opened his eyes, sneering at Godzilla. “My brothers _chose_ me as our leader. It was an unanimous decision. Which is more than can be said about you.” He tilted his head in mock curiosity. “Tell me, how many of your ‘friends’ follow you out of fear of getting killed like your rivals? And how many would turn against you if they learnt of how weak you had gotten?”

Like always, San could be relied on to tell someone’s weaknesses, Godzilla jumping at them with a furious roar. And like always, Ni could be relief on to defend them, grabbing one of the weak king’s arm and throwing him beyond the ice. Now, to collect energy to get out of here...

* * *

Godzilla landed on all four, his claws making an horrible sound against the floor. _Metal? Humans figured out metal again? Didn’t Battra kill the last ones-_ He was snapped out of his thought process as Right- because that’s how Godzilla made the difference between them, who stood where when they weren’t fighting- jumped at him, one of it’s legs raised and ready to strike down.

He quickly moved out of the way, Right’s leg leaving a dent in the floor where it struck. He then quickly charged toward Godzilla, lashing out with clawed hands multiple time which his opponent quickly avoided, cackling the entire time. “How the hell have you recovered so fast- ACK!”

Right had changed strategy, raising one of his legs and kicking him in the crotch. He grabbed Godzilla’s face as he started falling forward. Right’s laughter momentarily died out a bit. “I never went to sleep,” Sharp claws started digging into Godzilla’s face, what looked like very thin and very numerous veins lighting up all over Right’s hand, seemingly travelling all the way up to the crescent moon-shaped jewel on his forehead. “So I don’t have anything to recover from.”

Right started laughing again, but his breath was cut short as Godzilla’s kneed him in the stomach, unleashing a pulse of energy right after to get him away before grabbing his braid, dragging him to the ground and trapping him under his foot, a smile appearing on his face for the first time today. “If you think I’m gonna fall for the old energy absorption trick just after you woke up, you’ve got another thing coming!”

But Godzilla was so caught up in the ecstasy of almost killing a Ghidorah… (Uh, Ni? He’s starting to charge his Energy breath. You _need_ to get out from under there.)

[Noted.] … that for a minute, he forgot they were three of them. Right rolled himself onto one of his side as much as he could, only to use the momentum to roll himself onto the other, standing up and barely avoiding Godzilla’s Energy Breath, avoiding it for a few seconds as he ran.

Not because it ended up hitting him, but because Godzilla suddenly stopped, a shocked look on his face. _I’m out of energy!?_

“Oh...” Right smiled with a mouth full of needle teeth, his hands lighting up. “Out of juice already?” He then raised his arms, and bolts of lightning surged out of his fingers, making Godzilla momentarily blank out out of inexorable _pain_ as he was hit. When it finally stopped, it was because his throat had been grabbed, claws digging painfully into his gills and dragging him at a speed he still couldn’t proceed after the shock. 

And then, Godzilla was thrown into the pool of icy waters in the middle of Ghidorah’s former icy prison, breaking the thin layer of ice that had formed in the meantime and Right cackling the entire time. When he resurfaced, Right was finally calming down, and Middle and Left were floating.

“I thought you wanted to kill him?” Left asked Right as he floated up to join the two others.

He scoffed, giving his hand to Middle for an energy transfer. He was, after all, the one who had been closest to Godzilla’s Energy Breath. “He’s weak and tired. I want a real challenge.”

Godzilla snarled from his position in the water. He didn’t have enough energy left to fire another beam so soon. “You cowards! What are you planning on doing now!?”

Middle cackled, raising one of his arms and releasing a burst of dark energy, the dark hole Godzilla knew they would use to get away starting to form. “Why, resume what we started before you and your slaves trapped us, of course!”

“What you starte- why the hell do you care so much about destroying humans!? They can’t do anything!”

The three of them giggled. “Who do you think freed us, you pathetic reptile!?” Middle asked Godzilla, a cruel smile on his face as the portal behind him grew. “Humans learned how to harvest your voice. Yours and the others who woke up!”

“I must say, your weak little bird friend sure has learned how to project his voice.” Left commented, reminding Godzilla that last time Ghidorah had seen Rodan, he hadn’t moved to Mara, hadn’t become the Voice of Vengeance, hadn’t a massive target painted on his back, _hadn’t been beaten down enough by fate that there was a very real chance of him just letting them kill him-_

“Humans did not bother with remembering us.” Right continued, the calm and cold and _dead_ tone of his voice contrasting heavily with the shrieking cackles he emitted while fighting him. “And now, they will pay heavily for that mistake. Farewell, soon-to-be former King of Titans.”

And with that, Ghidorah disappeared in the void, leaving Godzilla to wonder just _what_ he had missed for things to spiral out of control like that.


	14. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Godzilla explains the situation to Mothra and Anguirus, Emma comes back to Monarch's base with Madison, and Ghidorah has fun at the beach.

“So your brother’s not awake?” Mothra nodded at Anguirus, who sighed in relief. “Well, that’s good to- Goji!” The aquatic reptile was walking out of the water, turning toward his friend and mate as they came to him. “So, what’s the situation on- man?”

Godzilla had a haunted look on his face. Mothra frowned, cradling his face in one of her hands. “Is everything alright, my love?”

“Ghidorah, they’re... I don’t know how it happened, there was just a strange sound, and then they- they-” Godzilla took a deep breath, before steeling himself. “The Golden Demise is free again. And we are in no shape to take him on now.”

Mothra and Anguirus looked at each other with horrified expressions. Ghidorah? Free!? “Do you know where they’re planning on going next?” Anguirus asked, visibly distressed. He clearly still remembered Left’s words from that one time he tried to fight them, accusing him of playing second fiddle to more powerful Titans because he couldn’t handle leading anyone while literally kicking him down.

Godzilla shook his head, and Mothra frowned. These shits had caused her death more than once, either kicking her mate into a depression or sending either of her brothers into a rampage- expected from Battra, but always a surprise from Leo- and she was not anywhere _near_ forgetting those slights toward herself or those she cared about. “Well, let’s think of our options. Who would they go after?”

Anguirus seems deep in thought for a moment. “They’d go either after you or one of your brothers. Battra tends to be more aggressive and actively provoke them, but Leo actually _succeeded_ in beating them once, so honestly? Both options are equally as likely.”

“They’d go after Mothra first either way.” Godzilla then added, starting to slip into his role of King. “She actively helps me- no offense to Leo.” He added, Mothra nodding in understanding. “And Right actively wants to make my blood spill. He’s good at hiding it, but I’m pretty sure he gets off of violence.”

“Oh, that’s gross.” Anguirus commented, wrinkling his nose as Mothra facepalmed.

“Well, it’s true.”

“Dear? Anguirus? Focus.” Mothra told them, both nodding. “Anyway, they can’t find our nests, and they know it. We only show our homes to the ones we trust, and none of us trust Ghidorah. Personally, I was thinking they would end up going to the monkeys’ island, due to it not sleeping.”

“You think they would go to the city where the underwater humans used to live?” Anguirus asked. “I mean, they got sealed before Battra decided to go on _that_ rampage.”

“Unlikely, but possible.” Mothra noted. “Godzilla? Do you have any idea?”

“... They mentioned Rodan, and I think he’s the one they’re gonna go after.”

“Why would they go after Rod- Oh.” Anguirus eyes widened in realization and terror as he too remembered that Rodan was _not_ a confrontational asshole with magma for blood the last time the Golden Demise had seen him. “Oh, Terra.”

“Alright, let’s do like that, then: Anguirus, you go to the ruins of Megalon’s worshippers. Godzilla, you go to Rodan’s nest. I will go the monkey’s island. Any objection?”

“No.”

“‘Course not.”

“Then, let’s go.”

* * *

The helicopter landed at Castle Bravo, Emma sighing and wondering ho the hell she was going to explain what had happened to Serizawa. It really didn’t help that the original helicopter pilot had been executed my Alan Jonah’s men, along with the original hostages. At least, Madison was safe...

The two of them were still shaken from seeing the Antartica Titans freeing themselves and just _what_ they could do, especially Madison. Just as they had left, the one who stood in the middle had turned just the slightest bit toward her, a cruel smile on his face as his voice flooded her mind.

She could still hear his voice ringing in her head. _Enjoy whatever time you have left with your mother, Madison. There’s not much left, after all._

“Alright Madison, let’s go.” Emma finally said, getting out of the helicopter. Madison nodded, getting out next and following her mother onto what looked like an oil rig.

“... Is this where you work?” Madison asked, confused. “I thought you worked for the government.”

“Oh no, not the government.” Emma answered, shaking her head and swiping a card in front of a camera, the door she was standing in front of sliding open. “Monarch. Come on, let’s go.”

Madison nodded, following her mother into the elevator. It stopped as they were only a few levels down, the doors sliding open to reveal a man with brow skin and dyed purple hair, who looked at Emma for a few seconds, visibly shocked before entering, typing his own stop. “... Dr. Russell.”

“Florès.” She answered back, not looking at him as Madison kept a laser-like focus on him.

“... Is that your daughter?” He asked, sending a quick look at Madison who averted her eyes.

“Yes.”

“I’d expect her to be younger...” He commented under his breath. “If you want, I can keep an eye on her in my office while you go explain... everything, I guess?”

Emma raised an eyebrow. “You’re not scared she’s going to disturb your working space?”

“Meh, she’s twelve and is recovering from a kidnapping. If she wants to know what I’m working on, I’ll just tell her. Or let her use one of my personal computers, I have to work on the ORCA plans anyway.” Florès turned toward the girl, smiling. “You’ll be fine if I just let you do whatever on a computer, right?”

“Y- yeah.” The teenager answered. She needed to distract herself from the three red-eyed Titans, and going on YouTube or watching this guy do whatever his job was seemed like it would work.

The door opened, Florès walking out and Madison following. “Good luck with explaining to Serizawa what the fuck _that_ was about!”

“I appreciate the sentiment.” Emma told him, the doors closing as she leaned against one of the elevator’s walls. What the fuck that was about, indeed...

The elevator finally reached the main lobby, Emma walking out before stopping. There was a man arguing with Colonel Foster and Serizawa, and she knew that voice.

“ _Both_ my wife and daughter went missing, you have no idea where they are, you think _terrorists_ might be involved, you knew my family could be a target, and you’re doing nothing to try and find them?” Mark Russell, her husband, snapped at them, panic evident in his tone.

“Mark?” Her husband turned toward her, relief visibly flooding him as Emma came closer. “What are you doing here?”

“The military brought me in when you went missing.” Mark explained, Emma nodding in understanding as she turned toward Serizawa.

“Sir? I need to talk to you about something in private.”

Serizawa shook his head, turning back toward the screen. “I understand, but we’re currently busy trying to determine where the Antartica Titans went-”

“Yes, well...” Emma hissed through her teeth. _Here goes nothing._ “It’s _about_ the Antartica Titans...”

* * *

Ghidorah landed, Ichi floating down to the ground, Ni doing a three-point landing, and San falling unceremoniously on the ground, a small cloud of sand puffing up where he landed, groaning. Ichi looked at his brother critically. “Why did you turn your gravity back on if you were going to land like an idiot?”

“I wanted to do something cool like Ni...” San whimpered, leaning into Ni’s touch as he pat him reassuringly on the head. The younger brother opened his eyes, pouting at Ichi. “Why did you bring us to a desert!?”

“... San.”

“What?”

“This is a beach. The ocean is right there.” Ichi blankly informed his brother, pointing at said sea as he waited for the dots to connect inside of San’s head.

And connect they did. “The beach... !? We’re at the beach!?” He suddenly sat up nearly headbutting Ichi who had bent down to look at him. A big smile appeared on his face. “We’re at the beach!”

“I heard brother Ichi the first time, brother San.” Ni deadpanned, even if he was smiling a bit as he watched San running toward the water, giggling to himself as he reached it.

“San, come back here.” Ichi called his brother, who just groaned and continued forward, water eventually reaching his knees. “San.”

“But we just got out!” He whined, before immediately going back to advancing, Ichi growling when he saw he was now waist deep.

“SAN!” SPLAT! Ichi recoiled in shock, before looking down to see what San had thrown at him. “Did... did you just throw a _crab_ at my _face_!?”

“And if you yell at me again, I’ll throw another one!” San threatened, a huge smile on his face and a crab in his hand.

“Stars damn it- do you remember that these idiotic Titan’s belief that this planet is alive and gives them life has actual basis to it!? If we don’t resume terraforming this place as soon as we can, we’ll-” Suddenly, a rock was thrown at him from another direction. In fact, in came from where Ni was seated. Ichi turned toward his other brother with a scandalized expression. “Ni!?” 

“Yes, brother Ichi.” Ni deadpanned. “Taking the time to relax and enjoy our freedom is going to make us weak and dependent on this planet. I can feel my soul linking itself to it’s core. Terra is speaking to me, do you want to know what She’s saying?”

“Ni-”

“Those weakling’s god is telling me you’re being paranoid and also a killjoy. Let brother San flounder in water if he wants, we just got out of our prison.” Ni finished, San laughing from where he stood in the water.

“Killjoy! Killjoy!” San chanted from where he was.

Ichi groaned. “Whatever. Don’t you have ice to get out of your pants?”

“It’s the next thing I’m throwing at you.”

“Thank you for the heads-up.” Ichi snarked, Ni standing up and undoing his belts to- you guessed it- get whatever ice hadn’t melted already out of his pants. True to his words, Ni threw the piece at his older brother’s head, Ichi not budging as the ice shattered upon impact and San laughed from a distance.

“... why did you refer to them as ‘Titans’?” Ni suddenly asked as he put his pants back on, taking a hold of Ichi’s wrist and starting to bring him closer to the water so they could keep a close eye on San. “I thought humans referred to them- and us- as gods?”

“Well, they changed words. Idiots do that, sometimes.” Ichi noted, Ni nodding in agreement.

(What does it mean?) San asked telepathically, still focused on looking through the water and occasionally getting things out to take a closer look at them.

“Those who came before the gods. Not bad, right?”

(Brother Ichi, that’s _terrible_.)

“I’m with San on that one.”

“... would either of you bother to explain your reasoning?” Ichi asked, feeling anger well up inside of him.

(The Gods don’t precede anything. Titans do. It implies we’re gonna get defeated.) Ni nodded at that

“How the hell didn’t I realize that sooner.” Ichi asked himself, Ni patting him reassuringly on the back as San came closer. “I’m going to have to personally kill that human now.”

“As always, humans are wrong: there is nothing that will defeat us.” Ni reassured his older brother, who sighed.

“And you shouldn’t bother yourself with personally going after humans.” San added, nearing his brothers and putting a hand on each one’s shoulder, which they quickly reciprocated. “We’re above that. Anyway, what are we gonna do next?”

“How about we go after that little bird you fancy so much?” Ichi proposed, a smile appearing on his face. “It is rather rare for you to personally use lightning on someone. Not even the weak king’s friend got that honor.”

“Really!?” San asked, looking very enthusiastic at the idea of finding the bird- _Rodan_ \- again.

“I still don’t understand why you fancy him so much.” Ni commented. “He’s weak.”

“I don’t know either, it’s just- his _mind_.” San started, looking as if he was about to drool. “It’s brighter than a star and so full of fire, it’s like a beacon- you’d think something so weak would let those flames go out easily, but they _don’t_ \- I _must_ have those flames- I _need_ to have that bird-!”

“Alright, alright, I get it.” Ni calmed down San, both with words and through their link. “Do we even know where he is now?”

“Oh...” San smiled. “Somewhere near a volcano in the middle of the ocean~ I’ll lead the way.”

“Well then,” Ichi started, arms sliding down to hold his brother’s hands instead. “Shall we go?”


	15. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Florès and Madison talk about Titans, and Monarch's top executives realize where Ghidorah is heading.

“- and that’s pretty much how the ORCA is supposed to work.”

“Why’s it called the ORCA?”

“I based the prototype’s plans on a machine your parents created.” Florès answered, a smile on his face. “A machine supposed to allow one to listen to whale songs. Another name for orca’s are ‘killer whales’, and since one of the most plausible theory about Titans is that they could easily destroy us if they wanted to... it seemed appropriate.”

“Orcas aren’t actually whales, you know?” Madison told him. “They’re actually a sub-species of dolphins. They just look like whales. It proves that us trying to classify things based on their physical appearance is moot.”

“It’s still appropriate then: Titans look like giant humans, but according to your mother, they’re not.” Madison nodded as Florès went back to typing on his computer. “Also, if the 14 feet tall guy who can bath in _lava_ ends up being a human, I’m gonna have a stroke.” He added, the teenager snorting.

The door of the lab opened, Stanton walking in. “Hey, Florès- is that a teenager.”

“She’s Dr. Russell’s daughter, don’t be fucking rude.” Florès snapped at him, before getting up. “You got new sound-banks?”

“Yeah.” He handed what looked like a disc to the programmer. “The Antartica Titans went free, and fought the Japanese Sea one.”

“We _really_ need to find them names that aren’t just their location.”

“Well, do you have any ideas?”

“... Kevin.”

“Alright, I’m gonna tell Graham, but I don’t think she’s gonna like it.” Stanton commented, Florès shrugging and taking the disc. “Anyway, they fought, Antartica won, and we got a ton of new stuff to work with.”

“Please tell me there’s a video I can go off of for context on these noises in there.”

“Oh yeah, you should be fine.”

“Alright, cool.” There was a pause. “Get out of my office.”

As the mechanic turned back around, sitting at his computer and putting his headphones one as Stanton left, Madison spoke. “Laughing.”

“... what?”

“The Titan that fights the blue-haired one. He just laughs the entire time.”

“... right, you were there.” Florès remembered. “Is there anything more you think you can tell me about these guys?”

* * *

“- so yeah. We don’t know where the Iwato Titan went, just that he went underground, the Infant Titan is currently flying to Skull Island, the Japanese sea Titan is going _back_ to Isla de Mara, and we _also_ don’t know where the Antartica Titan is.” A scientist explained to Serizawa, who nodded as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

First, Emma goes rogue and frees the Antartica Titan, and now the only Titan who’s not on the move was the Mara one!? At least, they were getting a lot of data on Titans out of this mess. 

And the government deciding to get involved in their business _now_ really did not help. “So not only have you lost sight of over half of the Titans currently known Titans, but one of your officials caused the early awakening of three!?”

“My daughter’s life was on the line, and seeing as they already killed a good chunk of our staff because _your_ military thought we were overreacting and refused to act in time, I had reasons to believe they would not hesitate on following through with those threats.” Emma retorted, standing next to Serizawa with an unrepentant expression. Her husband was standing back a bit, clearly overwhelmed with what his wife had been doing.

“Everyone, we’ll focus on what to do with Dr. Russell once we have the situation back under control.” Graham intervened. “For now, we need to find where the Antartica Titans went, especially since the only thing we know for sure about them is that they’re brothers-”

“SERIZAWA!!!” Said scientist turned in shock, seeing Florès tumble out of the elevator and run toward him, before stopping. He was visibly out of breath as he tried to speak, and English seemed to escape him. “Titanes... tormentas... ubicación...”

“Take a deep breath, Florès.” The older man told him, the mechanic nodding and taking a large gulp of air before resuming.

“Are there any freak electrical storms that started over the last few hours?” He suddenly asked, looking extremely worried.

“I-” They turned toward the computer screen, pulling up a map of the planet. Indeed, there was what looked like a rapidly growing storm slowly moving away from the South African coast. “... Yes. How did you-”

“We have a base around there, right?” Florès asked again, Graham the one nodding this time. “Can we use that base to send one of those super-fast drone after the storm?”

“Why?”

“I think it’s where the Antartica Titans are hiding.” Was all the mechanic said. Graham looked at Serizawa for a moment, unsure, but sent out the order to send out a drone the moment he nodded. When the beeping point reached the border of the storm, she pulled up a small video, showing the inside of said storm.

As the drone advanced in the storm, it eventually found three shadows in it’s center, only illuminated by the occasional flash of lightning. They seemed to be walking on the clouds, golden hair moving behind them as if they were underwater and rain drops highlighting their silhouette. 

Suddenly, a faint noise, somewhere between a chirp and a growl could be heard, following by the silhouette on the right turning toward the drone and sending an electrical bolt toward it. Contact was lost soon after.

They all turned toward the programmer “How did you know they would be within a storm?” Mark asked Florès, who shook his head.

“That’s not important. What’s important is: where are they heading?” Florès asked, Graham immediately checking the map.

“North-west.” She answered as Mark came closer.

“Is there anything of note in that direction? Like another Titan?” He asked, and realization struck Serizawa.

“... Isla de Mara.” The older scientist muttered under his breath, horrified.

“What could they possibly have to do with the Mara Titan!?”

“Well, you said Titans showed animalistic behavior, right?” Mark asked, Emma nodding as he turned back toward the screen. “If that’s the case, he’s probably going there for food, a fight, or a f- something more intimate.”

The look on Florès’ face was almost comical in it’s sheer terror. “You really need to learn how to steel your nerves.” Serizawa commented, turning toward the younger man and making him snap out of his thoughts.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Florès started, visibly at the end of his patience. “Am I the only one who remembers that the Mara Titan LIVES IN AN ACTIVE VOLCANO!? If the Antartica ones are going there for _any_ of those options, and considering that all four of them are already fucking with the laws of reality by _existing_ , none of these options look good!”

“Especially if they land on Mara.” Emma continued, horror slowly dawning on her. “Whatever they’re planning on doing to the Mara Titan- Florès stop making that face, it’s probably fighting- we need to find a way to draw them away from it.”

“Or move the Mara one!” Florès exclaimed, turning toward Serizawa. “I- we could use the ORCA to draw the Mara Titan away from it’s territory and into the storm, taking their fighting away from civilians, buying us time to evacuate the island and maybe an opportunity to kill them.”

“What!?” Serizawa exclaimed, turning toward Florès as if he had just spouted something ridiculous. “You do realize that killing a Titan could have devastating ecological consequences-”

“Mara lives in a volcano, and I’m pretty sure Antartica has been frozen for longer than the current continents have been a thing. I doubt either of their death would cause such a big impact.” Florès countered, frowning. “Plus, we didn’t know the Mara Titan was a thing, right? Maybe there’s others that are still hibernating.”

“You don’t get it.” Graham started, pulling a few files out of her desk and handing them to the younger man to read. “Back when Monarch was first formed, we _did_ try to kill one of the Titans in 1954, by dropping an atomic bomb on it. Not only did it not work, the Titan ended up absorbing the energy and leaving no trace of it ever being set off behind!”

“Mierda...” He muttered under his breath.

“Still, with the kind of storm _they’re_ setting off,” Admiral Stenz started, everyone turning toward the screen, “It would be in everyone’s best interest if you were to get rid of them.”

“Didn’t you hear Graham?” Emma snapped. “Atomic weapons won’t work.”

“... well...” Serizawa muttered to himself... “I might have an idea... Colonel Foster! We’re going to need the Argo, and an emergency evacuation of Isla de Mara.” The colonel nodded, getting her talkie-walkie out and directing the soldiers around the base of Serizawa’s instructions. “Graham, go get Coleman and Stanton. Florès, you’re coming with me, and remember to take the ORCA. Russell, after the stunt you pulled, you need to stay here.”

“Can I come?” Mark asked, Serizawa nodding.

“We’ll need as much help as we can with what’s coming.”


	16. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark and Florès talk about their respective career paths as Isla de Mara is evacuated, and Rodan is issued a challenge.

Florès looked at everyone embarking on evacuation planes and ships, frowning. He was sitting at the port, typing lines of code on his portable computer, Mark standing close by. The older man occasionally turned to him, trying to look over his computer. The latino finally sighed exasperatly, turning toward Mark. “What is it?”

“... How long have you been working for Monarch?” Mark finally asked, startling Florès. “I mean, you can’t be that old.”

“... I’m twenty-three. I got my Masters in robotics two years ago.” Florès blankly informed Mark, clearly looking confused.

Mark whistled. “A masters at 21? That’s pretty impressive. Did you minor in something else, or was it your only focus?”

“Minored in computer mechanic, and had prior experience with other kinds of mechanics with my parent’s cars repair shop.” The younger man answered, Mark nodding and sitting next to him. “I also took extra classes in high school to learn the basics on how to program, and I taught myself the rest.”

“Wow. You sure are talented.” Mark commented, Florès’ mood visibly improving at the praise. “You get all of that done at 21, while it took me a few tries before getting my doctorate in zoology.” There was a pause. “Are you planning on getting a doctorate?”

“I mean...” The younger man shrugged. “I’m pretty fine with where I am right now, if that makes sense? I mean, I had my difficulties with finding- and keeping- a job before, but I don’t think Monarch’s gonna let me go anytime soon. Plus, the pay is good, and they tolerate me being an asshole.”

“Yeah, you should probably stop doing that.” Mark commented. “No matter how smart you are, no one’s going to want to work with you if you can’t play nice. Trust me, I’m speaking from experience.”

“... meh, they’re the ones who start it, usually. Doesn’t help that everyone always seems to think I’m just a diversity hire.” He continued, frowning.

Mark blinked, trying to find a way to change the subject. “What are you doing on your computer?”

“Oh- uh... started out as finessing the sound bank we’re gonna be using to lure the Mara Titan to _that_ -” The younger man pointed at the approaching electrical storm, dark clouds rolling and crackling with lightning. “whole mess, but I finished like, half an hour ago and now I’m just reinforcing all of my security measures.” He then smirked. “And preparing a little surprise for those _coños_ from the T.L.F~”

“Mark! Florès!” The two turned toward Coleman, who was standing at the entrance of the Argo. “We have to leave, _now_. Is the ORCA ready?”

“Of course the ORCA’s ready, who do you think I am? An unpaid intern?” The programmer snarked back, closing his computer, getting up and walking to the entrance of the airship, Mark not too far behind him.

* * *

Rodan looked skeptically at the ground, unsure of what was going on. The bugs were leaving their nest through those fake metal birds- which was a _good_ thing, he wasn’t complaining, but it was strange. And unlike the bugs. Surely, it couldn't be the storm rolling up at the horizon.

He had grief-fueled rampages that did more damage than that storm would when it would reach the island, but the bugs had come back from those. The bugs _always_ come back.

He watched as the biggest of the fake metal birds started rising up, flying away and toward the storm. So it wasn’t the storm they were running away from. Rodan groaned, climbing to the highest point of his nest, the objective being to let himself slide down to go see how the human nest had changed since he had last seen it, but something caught his attention.

Some of the smaller metal birds where flying toward him. He frowned in confusion. Rapidly deepening confusion when he saw something detach itself from the fake birds as their shape became more concrete. 

It took him a moment to realize that those parts where flying _right at him OH FUCK-_ one of them hit his face and another his chest, making him screech in anger as he lost his footing. He quickly grabbed the ledge again with his hand, swinging himself over it as he growled. “WATCH WHERE YOU’RE SHOOTING, DUMBASS!”

Because that’s what those _lousy little pests_ where doing- shooting him- what where those supposed to hurt him? The only pain they drew was from the scar Ghidorah left him so long ago, and only because it had started acting up lately. Who did they think they were, trying to emulate the King or the Death Song- !?

A strange sound suddenly started, putting Rodan on edge as he strained to hear it. It seemed to come from the largest of the fake birds.

Where... where the bugs _calling him?_

It was jerky, and metallic, and _not right_ , almost fake even, but the message was clear enough. They were issuing him a challenge. Rodan’s lips stretched into a wide smile, tongue darting out to lick his fangs in anticipation. _So that’s how they wanted to play, uh?_

He gathered wind at his fingertips, fell forward, unfurled his sleeves, and the Fire Demon took flight.


	17. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Monarch baits Rodan into the storm.

“Alright, looks like we got it’s attention.” Mark commented from his seat, watching the Mara Titan screech in anger as missiles hit him. Florès was fidgeting next to him, occasionally taking a glance at Serizawa and the missile he had helped him build as he put a strange sphere-like object enclosed in a glass box in it’s head.

“... So... we’re gonna kill the Antartica Titan... with that?” He asked, Serizawa nodding grimly.

“We’ll have to wait until the civilians are all safely evacuated, and for us to get enough altitude. We cannot just drop it on it’s head.” He explained, the mechanic nodding. “Hopefully, the Mara Titan won’t be caught in the blast.”

“So... what is it supposed to be, anyway? A small, remote, makeshift atomic bomb? Because it doesn’t seem like much.” Monarch’s head scientist shook his head.

“Oh no. My father is _hibakusha_ , I know better than to craft one. What I hold in my hands is much, _much_ worse.” Serizawa stated, Florès biting his lips as he couldn’t help but let his brain run a mile. The only thing coming to mind that could be worse than the aftereffect of an atomic bomb would be the outright elimination of atoms, but that was-

“Florès! We need you to activate the ORCA now.” Foster reminded the roboticist, making him snap out of his thoughts as he swiveled in his seat, turning the device on and switching the setting from ‘Defense’ to ‘Defy’.

“¡Empecemos con esto!” He muttered under his breath, and turned the frequency up. He then raised his head, looking at the Argo’s built in camera along with other passengers, which was zoomed in on the Mara Titan as he unfurled his sleeves as if they were wings.

Something then shifted around the red-haired Titan as he let himself fall, and he was flying, a strong wing _that was not there before_ carrying him toward them, the gale destroying the fishing town as he passed above it.

The scientists from Monarch watched, horrified as the town was destroyed beyond repair by hair the Titan glided on. “What the hell...” Mark muttered, an horrified expression on his face. “Good thing we evacuated the Island before hand.”

“I don’t- I-” Florès shook his head. “I’m not an expert in physics, but I’m pretty sure something that’s essentially a scaled up human shouldn’t be able to destroy a small town by _flying over it!_ So how-”

“You all seem to be forgetting we’re not dealing with a simple animal or a really big human, but a _Titan_.” Graham reminded them from her seat. “There is a reason we’re calling them that. You should all get into your head now that Titans have shaped our world. They were there long before us, and that they’ll likely be here when we’re long gone.”

“Yeah, well you should change that to _demons_ ,” Florès hissed under his breath. “Because the _thing_ we’re dealing with is either Lucifer or Satan, and not only did we piss him off, we’re also challenging him!”

Coleman sent a strange look at Florès. “Uh. Wouldn’t have guessed you knew your biblical demons.” He waited a few seconds for him to snark right back, but the younger man just kept his eyes swiveling between the ORCA and the screen where the Mara Titan was. “Florès?

“Both you and I have more important things to do than talk about how I was raised catholic.” Florès finally hissed at his boss, who nodded.

“Right. E.T.A to the Antartica Titan, two minutes. And if the Mara Titan just keeps moving toward us, we won’t have to time to lure him in!” Coleman stated, Foster nodding.

“Coleman, keep an eye on the storm. Florès, keep the ORCA running. All ships, follow our lead. Make sure he’s too distracted to go after civilian cargo. Make him run into zigzag.”

“Roger that, ma’am.” One of the pilot answered over the comlink. The crew momentarily allowed themselves to think this was possible.

And then that hope was dashed as the Titan came up, clapping his wings/sleeves together and creating a strong updraft that carried him above the planes. It’s yellow eyes zero-ed in on the Argo, before visibly dividing his attention between it and the smaller planes, which started advancing toward him.

His attention was then taken entirely by the fighter jets as they started firing missiles. He didn’t let them hit this time, gracefully maneuvering through the air until one of the jet was within reach. On of his clawed hand started glowing orange, and then carved through the jet’s wing like a hot knife through soft butter. One of the pilot’s icon went red.

It was official: they were in hell, and the Titan chasing them was their punishment.

* * *

Oh, this was _fun_. 

How could he have forgotten that humans where so much fun to play with? Because that’s what it was to him: a fun distraction from everything that was going on. The recently finished hibernation, Godzilla beating him once he woke up, the scar on his chest courtesy of Ghidorah that’s been acting up lately... all of it was forgotten as he chased after the fake birds in the skies.

The only thing it didn’t distract him from was the recent disrespect from the humans. But that would quickly be righted, once this little stroll was over. For now, he had to take down the little fake birds before going after the big one. In all, there was twelve of them, and one was down.

Only eleven to go.

He exhaled, a thin trail of black smoke exiting his mouth as he let the wind carry him until he was in the middle of the strange formation. He flinched as he felt tiny bits of hot metal collide with his side, coming from on the fake birds on the side. He grabbed wind in both of his hand and clapped them underneath him, the two colliding forces sending him up and destroying four of the birds.

Seven left.

He let himself fall, claws heating up again as he landed on one of the metal bird’s tail. However, instead of simply tearing through it, the tail exploded upon him touching it, sending him back momentarily throwing him off balance. He passed under another bird, raking his claws through it’s underbelly and sending it plummeting into the ocean, before he righted himself and sped up after what was left.

Just five now.

As he approached the flock, the head of one of the birds suddenly opened, something flying out of it. Rodan opened his mouth, biting down on it as it flew directly in his face. He soon recognized the coppery taste of blood as what was left of the human fell away. Well, _that_ confirmed his suspicions that the humans were controlling those.

Those last four humans would soon join the rest.

He was now in the middle of what was left of the flock, calculated the risk in his head, grasped the wind between his fingers once more, and fell, going down in a spiral and creating a small tornado around him, taking out what was left of the metallic birds. 

Only the leader of the flock to go.

He stopped spinning, let his feet graze the ocean, steam rising up behind him in a trail, before letting the wind carry him back up, chasing the large metal bird into the storm. The fake song continued, even as he landed on it. The wings of the bird were impressive, he had to admit. Each at least two times as tall as Godzilla.

But that wasn’t important. He slowly crawled to the head of the bird, the smooth surface giving too little in way of grip for him to move quickly. But the fake song got just a bit louder with each inch gained. He chuckled to himself as he reached it’s head, letting the liquid fire in his veins heat up his claws, intent on ripping through the metal and defeating those humans.

The pain in his chest intensified ten folds as _danger_ screamed in his head. He unfurled his sleeves once more, the wind carrying him off of the metal bird as he finally took a good look at the storm, ears listening for anything out of the ordinary, barely noticing that the bug’s fake song had stopped.

The clouds glowing green, the electricity crackling around him and the constantly beating rain could’ve fooled him into thinking Terra Herself had decided to create it in a bout of discontentment had it not been for the ominous humming that came from simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. 

His eyes widened as a flash of lightning showed a figure with long golden hair in front of him, sharp teeth gleaming.

At the next flash, and he saw the one on his right, claws unsheathed.

Another flash, and he saw the eyes of the one on his left, locked onto him.

The clouds _exploded_ in a show of storm as the three figure looked down on him with three pairs of glowing red eyes. “Hello, little bird~” They sang in a triple voice that _screamed_ death. _Uh. Looks like Ghidorah freed themselves._

What that meant then hit him with all the force of Godzilla punching a rival in the face a second after, and the soul-crushing despair of realizing he was _alone_ in a _storm_ against the _Golden Demise_ engulfed him along with the clouds.


	18. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rodan gets beaten, Ghidorah almost gets beaten, and something very, very bad happens.

Rodan was frozen on the spot, only kept up in the air the circling wind. _Ghidorah is free. GhidorahisfreeGhidorahisfreeGhidorahisfree WHY IS GHIDORAH FREE!?-_ Ghidorah was apparently still a donkey, because their heads turned toward the human’s fake bird as it exited the storm, flying under them.

It was when Rodan realized what had transpired. Those fucking _cunts_ had led him straight to Ghidorah. And for what? An offering to appease the One who is Many? A fucking afternoon snack for those assholes!?

Not if he had something to say about it! “OI, GOLDEN NOTHING!” He roared, letting the wind push him forward directly toward Middle, who turned back toward him with an aggravated look. Rodan realized that deliberately provoking them was _not_ his brightest moment just as he colluded and the two started falling out of the sky, but he was in too deep now.

Plus, he knew how to fight them, Godzilla’s words on the plan to defeat them all those years ago clear in his head. _We just need to get one away from the other two, and they’ll quickly lose their mind in trying to get their brother back._

Well, Rodan was taking Middle away from his brothers, a strong push of downward wind assuring he wouldn’t just be able to turn off his personal gravity. The wind roaring in his ears nearly made him miss the screams of confusion from Right and Left as he balled one of his fist up, punching Middle in the face repeatedly as they continued falling.

“Is that really your plan?” Middle suddenly asked him, a slender hand grasping his neck and using it as leverage to get their faces close together. “Separate me from my brothers?”

Rodan quickly shook his head free, growling. “The next time you touch me is the last time you have hands, understood?” Middle just laughed, still holding his arm up to the side of Rodan’s head.

“Oh, brothers? A hand would be appreciated.” They suddenly stopped falling, and Rodan just had the time to roll himself off of Middle and righting himself in the skies before seeing Right and Left were now there, both holding their brother’s arm and all three now looking at him.

He shuddered. Middle was looking at him like he was a mathematical equation, Right like he wanted to see what Rodan’s head looked like crushed open on the ground, and Left like he was a toy he couldn’t wait to break. None of these were looks he liked directed at him, especially on those faces.

“Hi, little bird!” Left exclaimed much too cheerfully for someone who was there to kill him.

“My name’s _Rodan_ , you fucking donkey!” He screeched, flapping his sleeves rhythmically to keep himself airborne.

Left nodded in acknowledgement, that creepy smile still on his face, but Middle tilted his head. “So, you didn’t get killed... what happened to you? I precisely remember your colors not being that bright, your hands being quite colder, and- oh right! _You actually having wings_!” He mocked.

Rodan hissed, feeling his face start to heat up as wind started gathering behind him, ready to push him to them. “That’s none of your business, Middle!”

“Are you people seriously still referring to us by where we stand-” Right was interrupted as Rodan tackled _him_ , the two starting to fall in the air again. This time, the two others weren’t caught off-guard, and the four got locked into a battle of anti-gravity and wind. 

Rodan tried to stay out of Ghidorah’s reach, but for every arm kicked away, for every hand slapped off his skin, and for every touch he shrugged out from, there were always two more that replaced it a few seconds after. He realized a moment too late that it was exactly what they wanted, his limbs entangled in Right's and Middle's as Left loomed over him, lightning sparking at his fingertips.

“Bye, Rodan!” Left exclaimed cheerfully, before shooting a bolt of lightning right where is scar was. Rodan almost blacked out from pain as he fell from the sky, three pairs of cruel red eyes looking at him as he plummeted toward the ocean.

His senses were then engulfed by cold water, which dulled the pain from the lightning and aggravated the pain from everything else. He barely noticed as an aquatic Titan passed under him, holding his arms as they sped to the island.

He suddenly surfaced out of the cold water, gasping for air and coughing out the intrusive liquid as he was dumped on a beach, the stranger holding his hair up, which had come loose from all the flying. Or maybe from the fighting. He looked up, surprised to find Godzilla looking down at him. “G... Goji? What are you-”

“I was worried about you.” Godzilla helped him sit up, his warms hand on the only parts of Rodan’s arms not covered by his clothes. “You stay still and nurse your wounds, alright?” The King got up, walking back into the water. “As for me, I’ve got a Golden _Pest_ to deal with...”

He then plunged under the water, and Rodan allowed himself to hope that Godzilla would be able to defeat them for real this time.

* * *

(Do you think he’ll survive?)

[If he remembers to swim? Probably. He’s survived worse than falling in the ocean.]

(Can we go find him? We just found our little bird again, and he’s more fiery than ever! I don’t want to lose him _now_.)

{Maybe later, _if_ he survives.}

(But brother Ichiiii!)

[Brother San, we have more pressing matters to attend to.]

(What’s more press- right. Humans figured out flying machines.)

{At this rate? They’ll probably figure out space travel soon too, and we do not want that to happen, do we brothers?}

(No!)

[Fuck no.]

{That’s what I thought.} Ichi turned toward where he thought he saw the human’s flying machines a fair distance away. The biggest one seemed to be slowing down for a smaller one to catch up with. As Ghidorah started floating toward it, creating thunderous clouds to cover themselves, they couldn’t help but notice that the smallest one was smoking.

(The smaller one is falling apart.) San noted just as rain started falling around them.

[Must be why the big one is slowing down.] Ni continued, narrowing his eyes as the inside became visible, the small one landing inside. Some of the humans seemed to be arguing. [They want to save their own.]

One of the humans, one who seemed young ith strangely colored hair, turned toward them outside and saw them. It’s eyes widened in fear as he screamed, attracting the attention of the others. {And by doing that, they’ve doomed themselves~} The fear in the humans’ eyes was palpable as a smiling Ichi reached a hand out, claws unsheathed and ready to grab onto the metal structure.

And then, out of absolutely _nowhere_ , the weak king jumped out of the water and tackled all three of them.

San screeched in surprise, accidently letting a lot of water into this lungs. Ni grit his teeth, successfully kicking himself out of Godzilla’s hold but keeping a hold on his arm as he swam further down, his brother’s throats enclosed in the weak king’s fists. He at some point let go of Ichi, and the older brother took a second to enjoy the lack of pressure before realizing _why_ Godzilla had let go.

San’s end of the connection went silent. His eyes glazed over, and his body slowly started falling as his throat bleed out. There was black blood slowly seeping off of Godzilla’s hand.

Ichi’s head immediately _exploded_ , and it took him a few seconds of thinking through the pain to realize that Ni had lost control over his emotions. His thoughts were an uncontrolled mess of raw _panic_ as San’s body floated out of sight. He decided to take a calculated risk. {Ni, go get San and let me handle the weak king.}

[But-]

{No but! You’re too unfocused to fight right now. Go get San and get on land. If he defeats me and follows you there, you can chase him off and fish my body out later.}

[I’m the better fighter! Why can’t _I_ stay behind!?]

{Because you’re also the better swimmer. Now go!} Thankfully, Ni didn’t argue after that, kicking Godzilla away and swimming after San. When the weak king tried swimming after him, Ichi grabbed him by the hair, yanking him toward him as he tried baring his teeth only for water to start entering _his_ lungs.

Stars damn it.

Godzilla just grinned at him, before lashing out with his claws. The eldest of the Ghidorah avoided them by a hair, grabbing both wrists and digging his own claws in them, trying to kick away the weak king to no avail. He felt Ni breach through the surface of the water through their telepathic link and moving as fast as he could toward the beach there, and was about to order him to stay here once he reached it when something caught his attention.

From behind the weak king, a strange green light had appeared, rapidly expending toward them. Ichi groaned internally, focusing on keeping Godzilla’s throat-slicing limbs away from _his_ throat as he braced himself for impact. It was probably the humans trying to assist Godzilla again. He wasn’t too worried, nothing they had ever done had been able to hurt him or his brothers.

As the light passed through him, all it really did was make his body tingle as even _more_ water entered his lungs. He would’ve screamed in rage and frustration if it hadn’t been for the weak king’s reaction as the light hit _him_.

Godzilla had let him go. His gills were twitching, and he had a panicked look on his face, hands grabbing at the gills on his neck as they started bleeding, his bright blue hair slowly turning darker. Ichi would’ve stayed longer, enjoyed the show of the weak king suffering and possibly _dying_ , but he had two brothers to check on.

He pushed Godzilla away, legs kicking underneath him as the water around him lightened. As his head finally breached the water, coughing and vomiting water out as he did so, he looked around for the island, before stopping in confusion. The small fishes that lived on this planet were all starting to rise to the surface of the water, dead. And then birds started dropping into the water too, confusing Ichi further.

It’s only when he flicked his tongue out, tasting the air, that he realized what the green flash had been. _Death_ , in it’s rawest form, at least for the planet, harvested and dropped right next to one of their very own protector.

The bird’s nest and the weak king were dead by the hand of humans.

Ni wasn’t going to be happy that his rival had died such an undignified death.

He swam to shore, putting his feet on the ground as soon he could, lifting his robe to allow better movement. He looked around, neck twisting in all direction from his left to his right, until he spotted a shaking Ni and a still unmoving San. Ichi allowed himself to soften up a bit as he saw that his still conscious brother was wrecked with sobs.

[San- please wake up- I can’t-] Ichi watched as Ni continued crying, holding their younger brother’s unconscious body and trying to get him to answer. He calmly walked up to them, before sitting down and gently lifting San’s head.

Ni sent him a confused look. {It’s like when you have to regenerate deep cuts after a fight. It’s easier when you hold the wound closed, is it not?} Ichi reminded him, using the hand that wasn’t busy with holding San’s head to wipe away his brother’s tears.

Ni slowly nodded, setting San’s body to be more comfortable as he buried his face in one arm, furiously wiping his tears away. San’s eyes lit up as the flesh started knitting itself together. He sat up, his legs still swung over Ni’s and a hand over his wound. “Sorry for the scare.”

“I- it’s fine. You’re fine now.” Ni reassured San, who smiled weakly. Ichi sighed in relief as he felt the pressure of Ni’s panic fade away from his mind, his headache going away with it.

Only to immediately return as he received a thrown rock to the back of his head, which shattered upon impact. He gestured at a growling Ni to calm down, took a good look at the glossy, black shards, before turning toward the sender. Sure enough, Rodan was standing here, fire in his eyes but clearly nursing his wounds. “How in _oblivion_ are you not dead?” He asked the bird, who simply puffed a cloud of black smoke as he spit some lava to the side.

“You’re not getting off this island.” Rodan hissed, making Ichi raise an incredulous eyebrow.

“And... you’re the one who’s going to stop us?” San asked, tilting his head.

“Yeah. I don’t care that you’re the Golden Demise, I don’t care that you’ve just beaten Godzilla, and I don’t care that you want to kill me.” Rodan snapped. “If any of you so much as _think_ of trying to leave, I’m blowing up the Island and all three of you with it.”

“And we won’t just kill you or mind control you into letting us leave because... ?”

“An advantage of becoming a Guardian, as shitty as how it happened was for me, is that you become _insanely_ hard to kill, and you can hide your nest away from others. Also, I’ve _always_ been immune to your bullshit songs.” Rodan answered Ni, who furrowed his brows. “And this Island is now out of sight. Nothing is getting in, or out, without my permission. Have fun spending the rest of your life near an active volcano, assholes.”

He then turned away, walking back to his volcano. Ni hissed and nearly threw himself at him, but was stopped by San’s arm. “What!?”

(He thinks we’re the ones who killed his island.) San stated blankly through their link, the intent of not wanting to be overheard clear. (If he was aware humans were behind it, his tune would change very quickly.)

{He’s a Guardian now. He wouldn’t believe us if we told him.} Ichi admitted. The only other guardians he was aware of where the Moths, the serpent who lived in the sea, and the mechanical being controlled by the underwater humans. All of them had showed a degree of protectiveness toward humans in the past. {Where we really asleep for so long?}

(That’s not important.) San cut in, finally properly sitting up and bringing his brothers closer to him. (What’s important is that he’s vulnerable. One of his friends is dead. The others aren’t there. He’s decided to isolate himself in the proof of his own failure. And we’re the only beings he can talk to.)

Ichi hummed. {And what’s your plan, brother?}

(For now? Pretend we go along with him. Try to find cracks in his behavior, anything to get closer to him and get him to talk about himself. He’ll be too desperate for companionship to notice something is wrong.) San started, before breaking into a fit of giggling. (Then, once we’ve hollowed him out? We break his shell, make him bow to us out of his very own free will, and we can begin terraforming~)

[... Holy shit, that’s _brutal_.]

{Truly, you can be the most cruel out of us sometimes, San.}

(I know.)


	19. Awakening: Battra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Battra wakes up.

He groaned as finally tore out of his cocoon, the feeling that something was wrong overpowering his desire to just go back to sleep.

He pulled his wings close to his body with one pair of hands, the other patting his face. It always felt weird when he reincarnated, his face losing all of it’s scars and his skin becoming far too soft. He walked to where he kept his (very few) worldly possessions.

His upper pair of hands busied themselves with the upper part of his robe as the lower ones tied his sash around his waist, his wings fanning out behind him. He looked at the pot of black face paint hesitantly. He usually put it on the moment he reached his adult form, a symbol of how he would not stay off of the warpath until humans stopped trying to make nature bend to their will.

But he was also fresh out of hibernation, and he wanted to go see if his sister was alright. Last time he had seen her, her mate- the current king- had torn out his throat and burned his upper body as punishment for destroying an underwater human settlement. Maybe if he showed up without paint on his face, she would be willing to listen to him?

He shook his head, banishing the thought. He’ll put on the paint if he needs to. For now, he needed to go check the Tapestry. He folded his wings down again, walking out of his nest and entering the main area of the decrepit temple, the pot in his hand. Unlike his siblings, he preferred keeping the temple standing by himself, which would explain how it started falling as he slept.

His eyes widened in horror as he finally laid eyes on the Tapestry. The locations of continents hadn’t changed much, the only noteworthy differences in those ways being some individual flowers representing land having changed to water, and vice-versa, which was normal. He’d give the duration of it of around five thousand years.

Flowers representing minor Titans had also fell to the ground, dead, which was also normal, they had just went through hibernation, not everyone could survive it, especially if they weren’t guardians. And hey, his siblings’ flowers were still there, which is all that mattered to him in that regard.

No, what was horrifying was how all of them seemed wilted, as if they had been exposed to the sun for too long with no respite, especially the clusters of white flowers that represented the two Poles. The damage seemed recent, too. And that wasn’t getting into the _holes_ of the Tapestry, most of them seeming like they would be able to recover. Probably were humans had put their settlement.

All except for one. Where there was formerly a few land flowers in an expense of water ones, the Fire Demon’s own red flower proudly bloomed, there was now nothing. The only flower left, the Fire Demon’s, was closed off, hiding himself and three intertwined golden flowers _that were supposed to be on a Pole_ from reality. No flowers would grow there now, the very Earth they grew on crumbling to dust when he touched it. _What have humans done!?_

He hissed, dipping his fingers in the pot of face paint. Once again, humans have stepped out of line. And once again, Battra will have to teach them.


	20. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Serizawa seeks advice from a concussed Florès following the events from Isla de Mara, and San convinces Rodan to come out of his shell.

_Florès sighed in exasperation, closing his eyes as he did so. Would it kill those soldiers to listen to the experts here!? He opened them as he heard a strange thriling sound, and screamed as he saw the Antartica Titans approaching. A pair of glowing red eyes bore through him, with a mouth filled with needle-like teeth smiling and looking like it couldn’t wait to bit him in half. Florès saw the clawed hand reaching out toward him, and blacked out._

* * *

Florès blinked, groaning and moving an arm to cover his eyes from the light, his head pounding. He slowly sat up, hearing someone move next to him. “Sir, are you alright?” He nodded, before grabbing his head in pain. Just moving it was painful. “Sir, I’m gonna need you to lay back down. You hit your head, and now have a mild concussion.”

He nodded, lying back down and sighing in relief as his head hit the pillow. “How long am I gonna have to stay here? And could you close the lights? My head feels like it’s going to split.”

“You’ll have to stay in bed for the next three days, and avoid looking at screens as best as you can for the rest of the week.” The doctor stated. “We’ll then do a check-up. If your symptoms haven’t lessened by then, you’ll be sent back to your home. Do you remember anything else before you fainted?”

“I...” He couldn’t remember what they were talking about, only that it was important. He _did_ , however, remember one of the Antartica Titan approaching them “... remember most the trip until we went to the cargo hold to help an helicopter and talk about... launching Serizawa’s bomb and being annoyed, I think? And... I saw the Antartica Titan first, and blacked out after.”

“Does your family have a history of fainting?”

“My abuela often had stress-related ones, yeah.”

“I see.” The doctor started walking out, turning the lights. “Serizawa will talk to you now, and we’ll do a proper check-up later.” Florès nodded, sighing in relief as the light was turned off, the only ones coming from the opened doorway and the beeping machines.

Soon, Serizawa entered the room, sitting at the edge of the bed. “How are you feeling?’ Florès nodded, conveying he was fine. The head-scientist sighed. “I’m sorry things got out of control like that.”

“Is this about me passing out?”

“In part, yes.” Serizawa sighed, burying his face in one hand.

Florès frowned in worry. “Did the Antartica Titans kill anyone? I don’t remember anything from after seeing them.”

“No, you don’t have to worry about that.” There was a pause. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

“What would you do if you had in your hands something you think _could_ be used for good, but that you _know_ can be used for evil?”

Florès thought for a moment, frowning. _What happened while I was passed out?_ “Can you give me an example?”

“You are aware of how Einstein played a small role in the Americans developing atomic bombs, and came to regret it?” Florès eyes widened. “What if you were not only in his place, but also created the bomb?”

“Am I the first person you’re asking that to today? I _just_ woke up, and I have a concussion!”

“No, I already asked Graham for her opinion on the matter. And you tend to be very down-to-earth, so I thought you might offer something interesting.”

“... Alright. First, I’d destroy the plans for the actual weapon, make sure not a single trace of it survives.” He started. “But I’d keep the theory behind it’s technology to myself, try to find ways it could be used for good. Also, I’d make sure no government is aware of it, or that they can’t take it for themselves. Can’t trust those fuckers with anything.”

“We’re on the same page for that, at least...” He got up, walking out of the room, the younger man sending him a reassuring smile. “Thank you for the input. Rest well, Florès.”

* * *

San entered the grotto, thrilling happily as he saw his little bird at the end of it, bathing in a pool of lava. He was neck deep in it, and his clothes were folded not too far away. “Hi, Rodan!”

Rodan groaned at the voice, blatantly ignoring San as he came closer. “What do _you_ want?”

“I just wanted to see what you were doing~” San sing-songed, lying down on his front and holding his head up with one hand as Rodan turned toward him.

Rodan just narrowed his eyes in annoyance. “I’m nursing my wounds from earlier today. You know, when your brothers clawed at my limbs and you shot a lightning bolt at my chest. _Again_.”

“Aaah, don’t be like that, little bird!”

“I thought we established earlier that my name was Rodan?”

“I mean, you people never call us by our name, so...” There was an awkward pause, Rodan staring at San, who was ignoring it completely. “I’m San, by the way. The one who usually leads us is Ichi, and the warrior is Ni.”

“I don’t care.”

“Thought you might, since your kind seems to think we’re a single entity split in three.” San explained off-handedly, shrugging. “And also, you, like, owe me your life. The least I can get is acknowledgment.”

“Wha- I don’t owe you _anything_ , you fucking moron-” Rodan yelped as San took a hold of his hair, dragging him out of the lava. He was about to hiss at him, before freezing as he saw his eyes, distilled malice focused on him.

“This ‘fucking moron’,” San started, hissing as he stared through Rodan’s eyes “could easily sink your whole island if he wanted to. The only reason you’re still alive is because I convinced my brothers that you’re our only way out. So you _do_ actually owe me your life, _little bird._ ”

He let go of Rodan’s head after that, the smaller being dropping back into the pool of lava with a small splash. San was expecting him to cower away, or at least to look like he’d be more willing to listen, but all he did was hiss right back. “Don’t fucking touch me, you asshole!”

San groaned. “Why are you so insistent on ignoring we’re here? _You’re_ the one who decided to lock the island away from reality with us on it, _you’re_ the one refusing to interact with us even though it’s obvious you’re lonely, _you’re_ the one who’s making _no effort_ to make a bad situation for all parties involved _at least_ a bit more tolerable, and _you’re_ the one who’s suffering the most for it!”

“So what!?” Rodan snapped right back. “I should just... put aside the fact that all three of you are out of your fucking minds and want to engulf the whole world in an unending storm so I don’t get lonely!?”

“Yes! It’s exactly what I’m saying!” Rodan screamed in frustration at that, submerging himself further in lava. San sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Look, if you want to sulk in your little lava bath and ignore our existence, _fine_. But if you ever decide you want to talk to someone...” He started as he got up, Rodan looking hesitantly to the side. “We’re staying at the beach.”

Rodan watched San walk away, a pensive frown on his face. Finally, he groaned, getting out of his pool of lava and putting his clothes back on. He ran out of the grotto, before taking off and flying after San. “Hey, San! Wait up!”

San turned toward the voice, visibly confused, before lightening up. He floated up, catching Rodan in his arms and bringing him close, flustering the other as he nuzzled his cheek. “I knew you’d come through~”


	21. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Florès gets out of the medical bay, and Battra finds Mothra.

“¿Que pasa, jefe?” Florès asked as he came into the main room, making his way to Serizawa and a woman he had never seen before. “The doctor finally gave me the clear to work at least an hour a day, Russellita is the only person who’s visited me since you, and I’m debating whether or not I’m actually dead and in hell. How are you doing? Any progress on your... dilemma?”

“I’m arranging something with Vivienne, you don’t have to worry yourself about it.” Serizawa started, putting a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “You keeping an eye on the Russell’s daughter is very appreciated, I’m glad to see you’re recovering so well, and _your_ hell wouldn’t have computers in it.”

“Alright.” Florès turned toward the other woman, extending his hand. “Hi. I’m J.C. Florès, computer scientist and developer-slash-creator of the ORCA.”

“Dr. Ling Chen.” She answered back, shaking his hand with a smile. “Scientist-in-chief of the mythology department. I suppose they brought you in after Godzilla’s awakening? I went to gather notes on who they all could be shortly after that.”

“... who’s Godzilla?”

“... Right- the now deceased Japanese Sea Titan.”

“Oh no, it took the Mara Titan blowing a gasket to- wait. He’s dead!?”

“... Yes.” Serizawa confirmed, turning his head to the ground. “Despite my protests, the military ended up using an experimental bomb and dropped it on Ghidorah- the Antartica Titans, they share a name- while they were fighting Godzilla. They... they ended up surviving.”

“There’s a summary on every known Titan in an email I’ve sent everyone, with more details on the ones currently awake.” Chen explained to Florès. who nodded numbly as he took a deep breath.

He then turned toward the soldiers at the back of the room. The two he started advancing toward actually flinched back as the roboticist stared at them. “Alright. Which one of you _pedenjos_ from the military thought it would be a good idea to drop an experimental bomb made to kill a small, living ecosystem near a _fishing town_ -!?”

“The Russells were right.” Chen muttered as she watched the younger man tear into the two fguards, who were trying to calm him down as other came to try and restrain him. “His attitude is completely unlike everyone else’s there. He knows he’s dealing with living gods, he just doesn’t care. Do you think it might become a problem?”

Serizawa hummed, turning back toward Florès. The younger man had climbed an unoccupied desk, and was now throwing office supplies at the guard who came too close. “Sir, please calm down-”

“ME CAGO EN TODO LO QUE SE MENEA-”

“He’ll have to learn how to steady himself eventually. And to learn how to make the difference between Monarch security guards and the U.S. military. For now, his teeth might be just what we need.”

“Uh, Serizawa?” The head scientist turned toward one of his employees, who was manning the map. “We’ve sighted another Titan, in direction of Skull Island..."

* * *

Mothra groaned, remembering why everyone avoided the Skull. She had been attacked no less than 6 times since she’s gotten here last time, got intertwined in three different traps, one of her wings almost got ripped, she was currently tied up in a net of vines, and she hadn’t even found any of the monkeys.

At least, it was proof enough that Ghidorah wasn’t there.

She snapped to attention as she heard some rustling. She narrowed her eyes as she saw a pair of red eyes look at her from the darkness of the foliage. “ ** _Show yourself._** ” She ordered. She was expecting another Incomplete one, or maybe even a monkey, but what appeared instead caught her off-guard.

“Hello, dear sister.” Battra greeted, twirling a blade fashioned from one of his former incarnation’s horn in his hand. Mothra frowned as she saw the black face paint. “It’s been a while.”

“Battra. Back on the path of war already?”

“Depends how much of Terra’s will the humans have violated this time.” He answered back, before flying up and grabbing one of the lianas. His expression softened. “Do you need help?”

Mothra nodded, her brother gently untangling her limbs from the vines, freeing her little by little as he cast the occasional concerned look. She smiled. “Thank you.”

Battra averted her eyes from her, focusing on his task. “Who else has woken up?”

“Oh! Godzilla, Rodan, and Anguirus. I haven’t found any of the monkeys, but chances are they’re awake too.”

“Great.” He groaned. “The trio of idiots is up and about. Just what I needed to hear when I wake up.”

“Oh, shush.” Mothra snarked back, using one of her freed arms to tap Battra on the head. “The only reason you don’t like Goji is because you don’t think he’s good enough for me.”

“You deserve only the best, and a brute who solves all of his problems with incredible violence isn’t it.”

“Oh, because you’re any better!?”

“... not my point.” He caught her hand as he untangled the last vine, the two starting to fly off into the skies. “And what about Ghidorah?”

 _Oh. Oh no._ “So... you saw them on the Tapestry?”

“... Amongst other things. Rodan is currently keeping them locked away on his nest, by the way.” Battra tsk-ed. “Reckless idiot.”

“You don’t get it. It will buy us time to prepare properly for them.” Mothra tried to reassure him. “Godzilla is currently on the way there, I’m sure he can-”

“No, _you_ don’t get it! Something... _something_ terrible happened.” Battra took a deep, shaky breath. Mothra frowned. That was unlike him... “Come with me to Styx’s temple. I’ll explain everything here.”


	22. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Florès and Madison talk about the Titans, and the Ghidorah's plan continues.

“-and he’s lived on Mara since then.” Madison finished, Florès humming and nodding in acknowledgment. The younger girl was currently reading the files about the Titans as the mechanic tinkered away on the new model for the ORCA.

It’s size was between the original prototype and the smaller one he had given Emma. This one was supposed to have a wider range of available sounds than just the options to make a Titan stand down or provoke them to a fight. “Damn, that’s a sucky backstory. And you’re telling me Rodan jumping in a volcano in an effort to be with his wife in death may be related to why he can live in one?”

“Yeah. I mean, Mothra can reincarnate.” Madison said with a shrug. “Magic that allowed someone to survive lava doesn’t seem that far-fetched.”

“Magic doesn’t exist.” Florès said, shaking his head as he got up from his chair, walking to the coffee machine and mini-fridge he kept in his office. “It’s just science no one has figured out yet. You want any snack?”

“Chocolate. And how would you explain reincarnation then, uh? Or Isla de Mara just... vanishing without a trace?”

Florès seemed to think for a moment. “Either Mothra is actually a really long family line of moth Titans who leave notes to each other in order to pull the longest scam in history- catch,” He threw a kit-kat at Madison. “-or the theory of genetic memory is actually right. As for Mara, I dunno. Probably something with physics...”

“What would you do if you learned magic was actually a whole science in itself?” Madison asked as she opened the candy. “Would you be mad?”

“I would be mad, yes. What about the last ones?” He asked as he started the coffee machine.

“Alright, so... Ghidorah...” Madison started. “There’s three of them, but we don’t have records of their actual names. But we do have nicknames: One who is Many, Golden Demise, Death Song of Three Storms... wow, there’s a _lot_.”

“Just give me facts, like with the others- powers, known relationship with other Titans, current whereabouts, and whatever backstory Dr. Chen scrounged up.”

“Alright, so: last seen near Mara, and disappeared at about the same as the Island. Everyone seems to hate them, and the feeling is mutual.” Madison turned to look at Florès, breaking her kit-kat up. 

“What about their powers?” Florès asked, pouring himself a cup and coming closer.

“Uh... bio-electrical, energy draining, meteokinesis, flight of unknown nature, suspected to have a high level of telepathy, independency from oxygen...” Madison listed off.

Florès nodded, taking his seat again. “Is it noted somewhere why he doesn’t need oxygen. Like, are they deep-sea weirdos, or something?”

“... Look in the opposite direction.”

“What do you mean, look in the opposite direc- no.”

“... yeah... it says in the ‘myth’ section that they fell from the stars...”

“No no no no no no no- we’re dealing with fucking _aliens_!?” Madison nodded. “¡Qué cojones...!” Florès snapped, slamming his cup on his desk. His attention then snapped at the unfinished ORCA. “I need to finish this.”

“Most of the myths they’re in also all portray them as malevolent.” Madison added. “Like, ‘inspiration for the Christian Devil’ malevolent.”

“Mmm. Don’t like that.”

“What, _you’re_ Christian?”

“Raised catholic, yeah.” Madison eyebrows shot up to her forehead. “Comes with the territory when you grow up in Venezuela. But I doubt these guys fell from grace, or anything.”

Madison hummed, going back to looking at the computer screen, even if she wasn’t reading anymore. “I talked to one of them, you know?”

“Did you?” She nodded. “How?”

“I... one of them was able to get outside of his body.” Madison started, Florès nodding and taking a sip from his cup. “And he talked to me. Brought me to mom when she came to get me in Antartica. And... told me he and his brothers just wanted to be free.” She buried her face in her hands. “I should’ve trust my instincts, should’ve known he was lying...”

“Well, you’re twelve.” Florès noted, patting Madison on the shoulder. “You can’t know everything. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Plus, you’re not the one who freed him now.” He then turned back toward the ORCA. “If I had been in your mother’s position, I would’ve done the same. And I can guarantee you that your mother would’ve still saved you if she knew all that stuff. So stop blaming yourself for getting kidnapped, alright Russellita?”

“Alright.”

* * *

Oh, that rock he was laying on was _comfy_.

Rodan never wanted to get up, curling up a bit even as he finally opened his eyes. The sun had risen a while ago, indicating he had slept in. Which made sense, seeing as he had stayed up talking and star watching with Ghidorah, who had been... surprisingly nice. They just talked about places they remembered seeing beyond the world Rodan knew, pointing at locations in the sky when it turned dark.

Now that it was locked away from reality, the night sky had gained it’s stars back. He used to think that Ghidorah were vengeful souls back from the dead, but he supposed that stars being a map of the world beyond their own made just as much sense as them being the imprint left by the departed.

Nevertheless, the scenery this morning was still very pretty. With the sun reflecting in the water with thousand of sparkles and illuminating the golden strands of hair around him, it was as if light was bouncing off of everything.

_Wait a minute..._

Rodan opened his eyes more fully, looked up, and realized with horror that he was laying in Ichi Ghidorah’s lap, who had his hair undone for once and forming a curtain around him. “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

Rodan screeched, jumping to stand up and suddenly _very_ awake, only to stumble and land on his ass. “How long have you been watching me!? And why was I sleeping on you!?”

“Since my brothers woke up a while ago. And you fell asleep while we were star watching last night. The ground didn’t look very comfortable, so I moved you.” Ichi answered, still sitting as he leaned toward Rodan, who looked around him with a panicked expression. “You asleep looked like you were agreeing...”

“Okay, don’t manhandle me when I’m unconscious. And where did _those two_ go!?”

“Ni is exploring what’s left of the human settlement. San is looking for rocks.” Ichi answered coolly, hoping the little bird would calm down eventually. 

For now, to no avail. “Why are they doing that!?”

“Ni wants to see if there’s any humans left. As for San, he just wants to find rocks.” There was a pause, Ichi debating whether or not he should open up a bit. “He will also inevitably smash one of these rocks on my head as revenge for telling him to do things, but that can’t be helped.”

“... there’s no humans left.” Rodan angrily muttered, finally taking his eyes off Ichi. “They all left some times before you came here, and those that didn’t were probably flung away when I fell for the humans’ bait.”

Ichi raised an eyebrow at that. “Bait?”

“Humans figured out how to create calls.” Rodan explained bitterly. “They used one to bait me into flying into your storm.”

Ichi chuckled. “Oh, we’d have found you either way. The whole reason we came here in the first place is because San wanted to see you.”

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t have had to fight off the three of you in the middle of a raging storm.” Rodan retorted, bringing his knees up to his chest.

Ichi simply shrugged, going into meditation. {Ni, there’s no humans left. They all left before we came here.}

[Are you sure?]

{The little bird told me they left.}

[You’re really just going to believe him?]

{What?}

[What if it’s a trick?]

{What would he get out of lying about that!?}

(Also, he’s telling the truth.)

[Hello, brother San. How do you know that?]

(Hi Ni! Humans have a really strong emotional presence despite being so small and stupid, so they’re really easy to spot. Along with Rodan, we’re the only ones here.)

{And you didn’t tell us anything for some reason because...?}

(I thought you guys already knew! I mean, I get Ni not noticing because he’s so bad at it- no offense-)

[None taken.]

(-but brother Ichi!? You should’ve noticed _ages_ ago.)

{Okay then-}

[Brother San, we haven’t even been there for a full day yet.]

(You know what I mean.)

{You two-}

[Anyway, I think humans figured out electricity, and how to generate it.]

{What!? Are you su-} Ichi was snapped out of his thoughts as he felt something lean on his leg. He opened his eyes, looking down at Rodan. The smaller being was leaning his head on his thigh, eyes closed. _Was he... was he sleeping?... no, just resting._ {The both of you come back as fast as you can. Ni, bring back some evidence.}

(But-)

{That’s not negotiable, San.} Ichi ignored his brothers as he put his hands on Rodan. One under his back, and the other one under his knees.

Rodan opened his eyes, confused. “What are you- gah!” Ichi had lifted him, only to promptly set him down on his lap. He chuckled as Rodan’s face started glowing brightly, twirling a lock of red hair around his long fingers. “Wha- telling you not to manhandle me when I’m sleeping wasn’t code for ‘do it when I’m awake’-”

“Don’t move.” Ichi told him, fingers carding through long red hair and separating it. “How do you usually style it?”

“Uh... simple ponytail, and I use another twisted strand to keep it together.” Rodan explained hesitantly. He looked down as Ichi started humming a little tune to himself, taking a strand of hair right above his ear and braiding part of it.

“How high do you keep your hair?” Ichi asked Rodan, who hummed in confusion. “I know it’s not high like San’s, but it doesn’t seem to be at the base of your head either.”

“J- just do it however you want.” There was a pause were there was no movement, Rodan fidgeting. He then brought a hand to the back of his head, claws tapping the middle of the back of his skull. “It doesn’t immediately become a problem if it loosen up, that way.”

“You don’t have to be so shy, you know? Why don’t you tell me what happened to you while we were sleeping.” Rodan shrunk on himself at that. Ichi leaned down as the other started debating it to himself, taking the braid within his teeth before lifting a sleeve up. He tied off one of the short ribbons he usually kept for _his_ hair.

“I... became the Fire Guardian.” Rodan finally admitted.

Ichi hummed, starting to gather hair for the ponytail, letting go of the braid in the process. “What happened to the last one? The bird with the colorful feathers... what was her name again?”

“Quetzalcoatl. And she... died. Out of control volcanic eruption, the smoke is what killed her.” Rodan’s voice had broken on that fourth word.

Ichi raised an eyebrow, tying the ponytail with the ribbon. “You two were close?” He was pretty sure the only people Rodan had been close to was Godzilla.

“We met after you guys got sealed.” Was the only context he offered.

“I see...” Better not push the subject for now less San’s plan gets ruined from trying to dig too deep too fast, but it would be interesting ammunitions for later. He tied the braid around the base the ponytail, passing whatever wasn’t braided under it. “Done~”

Rodan hesitantly pat the braid on the side of his head, before shaking his head a bit. It seemed to be holding better than normal. He was about to thank Ichi, before remembering he was still sitting on his lap and jumping off with a yell. This time, he was able to right himself, and looked at him. Since the Ghidorah was sitting down, the two were at mostly the same eye level. He coughed hesitantly, the flush on his face lessening a bit. “Th- thank you.”

“You’re welcome, firebird.” Rodan’s flush immediately came back, his face almost glowing a golden color.

“Still better than ‘little bird’...” He muttered to himself. Rpdan than turned, facing away from Ichi. “I’m going to go for a short flight, ascertain the damage you and your brothers did. Do not try anything while I’m gone, got it?”

Ichi chuckled. “You’re cute when you’re trying to be intimidating. And understood. I’ll be right there when you come back.”

“... Good.” And with that, a strong breeze lifted an extremely flustered Rodan of the ground, leaving Ichi alone and in a good mood.

Said good mood immediately faded away as he felt something collide with his head. He looked to his right, raising an unimpressed eyebrow at Ni who had smashed something made out of wood on his head, “Really?”

“I wasn’t finished searching, and you were getting too touchy-feely.”

“Yes Ni, that’s the plan.” Ichi reminded his brother. “Get close to Rodan in order to manipulate him.”

“You were getting touchy-feely- here’s the human tech.” Ni dumped what was left of the pole on Ichi’s lap. The older brother took a look at it, frowning. Certainly what was needed to transport energy from one place to another, but not enough to not lose any in travel, and there was too many pieces.

“That doesn’t make sense.” Ichi grumbled. “This is too primitive compared to the flying machines they had. It should be more in line with it. The other civilizations we saw always had a consistent level of tech on the entirety of their planets, if not always in line with other civilizations.” 

“Not all of them.” Ni reminded him. “You remember the Exif, right?”

“Of course I remember the Exif.” Ichi hissed. The first (and the last) civilization to ‘loan’ Ghidorah from the Xiliens for a period of time that could be counted in years. In this case, for the upper class to intimidate the lower ones into believing their Gods had come to smite anyone who would dare oppose them. And since Gods were supposed to be immortal, they had stayed for several Exif centuries.

But then the Exif ended up believing their own lies, and upon San’s request, found a way to disconnect them from the Conductor. Enveloping their planet in an endless storm and watching it die had given Ghidorah such a rush they just _knew_ that it’s what they had been taken away from their own world for.

“Not sharing everything in an equal manner between all seems like something they would do.” Ni commented. “And humans always lived in small, separated communities with a clear leader. Maybe it became more apparent as time went on? It goes very fast to them, after all.”

Ichi groaned, taking one last, distasteful at the components in front of him. “Still. There’s never that big of a gap in technology on singular planets. If they have figured out space travel, the furthest they would be able to go to is their moon.” A rock landed on the back of Ichi’s head. “Welcome back, San.”

The youngest brother sat down, giggling as Ni gave his own snort. His arms were full of rocks “Sorry, needed to get it out after you interrupted my search for cool rocks.”

“ _Did_ you find any cool rocks?”

“Not really...” San whined, handing the rocks to Ichi, who started looking them over. Most of them had the same hard quality as the ground. “You called us back before I could find good ones... oh! But I did find this!” Out of the tissue he usually draped himself with, San got out a glossy black stone that had a powdery, golden sheen to it.

Ni’s eyes widened by a fraction, making a grabby motion for it. When San shook his head, his face soured. “Why?”

“I want to give it to Rodan. Show of goodwill.” San explained. “By the way, where did he go?”

“For a flight. He wants to see how dead his island is.” Ichi answered off-handedly. “Are you sure that plan of yours is going to work? Fire bird has... quite the temper. He might not break if we tell him the humans were the ones who did this.”

“Someone angry at us but more at our target is still easier to use than someone who’s just angry at us.” San replied, before frowning. “Also, I thought he was ‘little bird’?”

“’Fire bird’ sounds less insulting than ‘little bird’.” Ichi answered, shrugging. “Like you said, show of goodwill. That, and doing his hair.”

“... Brother San, give me that rock.”

“No, Ni!”

“It’s not for me. I want to be the one giving it to the fire bird.” Ni answered. Upon his brothers’ confused faces, he continued. “It’s easy for the both of you to pretend to be nice- oblivion, San is _actually_ nice. It’s not for me. But the plan isn’t going to work well if it doesn’t seem like I’m at least trying to be nice. So?”

After a few seconds, Sa handed the stone to Ni, the message in his eyes obvious. _Don’t screw this up._

_We cannot screw this up._


	23. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anguirus finds a severely wounded Godzilla, and Florès finally springs his trap on the T.L.F.

Alright, so Ghidorah wasn’t in the underwater city.

That was a bad thing, Anguirus needed to remind himself as he crawled through the underground tunnels. Not knowing where Ghidorah was was a bad thing, even if it meant that he didn’t had to deal with them verbally destroying him for now.

He passed through a certain tunnel, the one under Dagon’s former nest, when he felt something strange. Someone was in it, and that someone was struggling to stay alive. Anguirus frowned, switching to the tunnel that lead to the nest. When he emerged, he started speaking. “Alright, what’s going on here-”

He stopped, eyes opening wide at what he saw. Godzilla was the one struggling to stay alive, rolled onto his side as he puffed out short, ragged breaths. His hair, which had been a bright blue ever since he became king, was now closer to it’s original black, and his skin stuck too close to his bones. He opened his eyes, looking at his friend in confusion. “Anguirus...?” He asked in a far too raspy voice.

“Goji!” He exclaimed, running up to his friend’s side and kneeling down, eyes raking over his body to try and determine what happened. “Wha- who did this to you-”

“I don’t know.” He admitted, eyes closing in pain. “There was just- I was fighting Ghidorah- I was winning- and then there was this bright green light- and raw _death_ -”

Anguirus frowned, sitting down properly. “You think it was Ghidorah’s fault?”

“No-” A hiss of pain, “-they might be death bringers, but they do it through storms.” Another hiss. “I don’t know if I’m gonna survive...” Godzilla admitted.

Anguirus curled up a bit at his friend’s side. He put a hand on Godzilla’s back, feeling his ragged breathing. He took a deep breath, focusing on transferring his energy to his friend. It wouldn’t be as efficient as Mothra’s healing, but it would have to do. And what would you know? The breathing sounds were already softening, no longer sounding like it was a conscious effort. “You will.”

Godzilla snorted. “You don’t have to do that.” His voice already sounded more put together, and Anguirus could have sworn his hair brightened a little bit.

“I can handle it.” Anguirus answered, rubbing soothing circles on Godzilla’s back. “You focus on staying alive and regenerating, okay? Me and Mothra will figure the rest out.”

* * *

“Damn, they’re really going at it...” Coleman commented, Florès humming in answer and not really paying attention. He had better things to do right now than pay attention to Serizawa and Graham arguing with military on the main screen again.

“Alright, here is the final say from the government:” Stenz started. “You either do the job Monarch was assigned of finding a way of killing the Titans, or the military will take over it.”

Or maybe he didn’t. Florès groaned, switching from one of his many personal projects to the custom-made firewall. He needed to take care of this mess.

“No, you can’t do that!” Serizawa protested. “If that happens, we won’t be able to find a way for co-existence with the Titans, which would be preferable to battling them.”

“And that’s without counting on the T.L.F. taking it as proof of us being inadequate and becoming even more violent-”

“Do you think we’re idiots!?” Stenz snapped, cutting a progressively angrier Graham. “This ‘Titan Liberation Front’ wasn’t a problem until the Titans started awakening! Everyone is starting to think that it’s actually an elaborate farce put up by Monarch so you won’t have to do your job!”

Oh, come _on_. Monarch might be full of fanatics- Florès could give Stenz that- but everyone here was smart enough to know not to mess with Titans, which couldn’t be said about the T.L.F.

“We told you about them before! Alan Jonah is literally it’s founder!” Graham snapped. “And if you had listened to us from the beginning when we told you the Titan Liberation Front was a problem, the only mess we would have had to clean up would be the Mara Titan destroying part of the town there, not... everything that’s going on right now!”

“I suggest you watch what comes out of your mouth, Graham...” Stenz not-so-subtly threatened.

Suddenly, Coleman spoke up beside him, voice low. “Say, you never did tell me where you learned about biblical demons...”

Florès turned toward Coleman, splitting his attention in three as he did so. “Don’t you have better shit to do than ask me about _that_ right now?”

“I’m _really_ trying to think of literally anything else than what’s going right now, and who you are is kind of a big mystery.” His boss informed him, the younger man humming in answer. “So tell me about yourself a bit. Please.”

“I'm from Venezuela, grew up catholic.”

“... uh. I thought you were just mixed and grew up in the states.”

“Oh, I _am_ mixed. My mom is from the Philippines. If anything, it just made my upbringing even _more_ catholic.” Florès answered, turning back toward his computer as something started beeping. “Now shut up, I have to spring up a trap on those Titanic Losing Fuckers.”

“Wha-” Coleman was interrupted as Graham slammed her hands on the desk, her expression curled into a snarl.

“You don’t get it, do you!?” She snapped. “If we get rid of the Titans, we risk putting the entire planet in jeopardy!”

Stenz seemed to hesitate at that, before hardening. “And would you care to explain that claim?”

“The Titans are living gods. They’ve been here before us. They literally shaped the world as we know it.” Serizawa started. “And ever since they started waking up, we’ve already lost two of them due to the eagerness to get rid of them from outside sources, including the one supposed to keep them all in check. We cannot afford to lose any more of them.”

_Come on, I just need one attempt from you guys- ah, there you are, cabrona. Couldn’t have picked a better moment._

“And we have no reason to believe that they are still needed.” Stenz finished, sighing deeply. “I’m sorry, but you leave us no choice.”

“No, you can’t-” 

“Hold on, General I-don’t-care-about-the-ecological-consequences-of-my-superiors-orders,” Florès suddenly cut off, raising his head from his computer as a new loading window opened on the main screen.

Serizawa turned toward the programmer, frowning. He realized he should probably talk to him about his hacking habits. “Florès, what are you doing-”

“I’m about to give Stenz real proof of how dangerous- and completely unrelated to us- the T.L.F. really is. Just hold on a sec... there!”

The window lit up, revealing a dark-skinned woman on the other side, who seemed very startled. “What? What’s happening!? Why am I-”

Florès chuckled, coming out from behind his seat and walking up to the screen. “Holla, Emily Kane. Sure is nice to finally meet the person who keeps breaking through our security system.”


	24. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Monarch exposes the T.L.F., and a misunderstanding starts in between Ghidorah and Rodan.

_“Holla, Emily Kane. Sure is nice to finally meet the person who keeps breaking through our security system.”_

Despite the initial surprise, the woman quickly shook her head, gaining her bearings back. “And you must be Julian Cyan Florès.” She answered back.

“Alright, I’m gonna have to stop you right there chica- it’s just Florès, J.C. if you’re a friend. And if you were trying to be intimidating by using my full name: that is _nowhere_ long enough to be my actual name.” Florès informed her, shaking his head. “Anyway, did you guys know the military thinks you guys are Monarch agents in disguise?”

“What?” The woman on the screen- Emily Kane- asked incredulously. “Well that would explain why no one has come after us- wait a minute, did you just- !?”

“Expose the existence of your group to the military and blow the cover you guys didn’t even know you had?” Florès asked, before smirking. “Sure did, chica.”

Serizawa blinked, before turning toward the younger man. “How did you do that?”

“Serizawa, I’m the one keeping the firewall so solid.” Florès told him, really looking like he wanted to deadpan but restraining himself. “I know every single attempt to breach it, failed and successful alike. By the way,” The younger man turned back to the screen, brows furrowed. “Pretty smart to hack the cameras the one moment I’m not looking at a screen. Too bad the footage you got is basically useless now.”

Kane sighed. “What do you want from me, Florès? And don’t try anything sneaky, I know what you’re capable of.”

“And you think I don’t know about what _you’re_ capable of, _Emmy_?” Florès started, his teeth flashing almost menacingly as he smiled. “You’re twenty-six years old, an orphan, and you got yourself a master in bioengineering with a minor in programming two years ago. You live alone with three cats- that’s sad- and the reason you decided to join the Titan Liberation Front is because Jonah is the only one who didn’t dismiss your talents because you’re a young black woman in field dominated by white male.”

She seemed surprised at that. “How do you know all that!?”

“Oh, idle snooping around in Jonah’s files. Dude needs a better firewall, and to trust his employees enough to not collect every single bit of info on them: official address, names of loved ones, birthplace, social security number-”

“Florès, we get it. You snoop around.” Emma started, getting up from behind her desk with her husband not far behind her. Until the Ghidorah fiasco was resolved, Monarch had allowed her to stay and help, and this was, in fact, what the earlier argument between Monarch’s head-scientists and the military had started about. “What I want to know is what the Titan Liberation Front thinks it’s doing.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Kane asked. “We’re saving the world.”

“By releasing the Titans- that doesn’t make sense!” Mark retorqued back, before Emma put a hand on his shoulder.

“Actually, it... does.” She started. “As impossible as it may seems. You know how the planet is slowly being cooked by pollution?” He nodded. “A very possible theory here at Monarch is that the Titans can fix it.”

“Indeed.” Kane started back, taking a deep breath. “Humans... w-we’re a sickness. An infection on the planet. But like all organisms, the planet has unleashed a fever to kill it’s infection. It’s rightful rulers. The Titans.”

“Is that what you actually think, or is that what Alan ‘Eco-fascism is my middle name’ Jonah fed you so he could get you to abandon your ideals and work for him?”

“Florès.“ Serizawa admonished before turning toward the screen.

“Jonah made me see the _truth_.” Kane snapped back. “If the human infection continues to spread, the planet will perish, and everyone with it. Unless we let the Titans do what they must do.”

“And what will be left then!?” Mark exclaimed. “A dead, charred world overrun by warring giants-”

“No, actually.” Kane answered, shaking her head. “The Titans- they emit radiations that keeps the planet going. It’d be more like a land buried under the ashes of a volcano bringing life back to the land. And the survivors will be able to reap the rewards.”

“This is a dangerous path.” Serizawa hissed. “You’re all messing with forces beyond our comprehension- gambling with the life of millions!”

“And what are you gambling with?” Kane answered back. “Monarch is on the verge of being overtaken by the military, and all the resources you’ve dedicated to merely studying the Titans will be used to enslave them, destroy them, use them as weapons- if that happens, the planet will die!”

“The planet _will_ die if Ghidorah is allowed to do as he pleases!” Graham started, visibly at the end of her patience. “They’re not from Earth! They are hostile Titans from outer space, who have always been malevolent, and your group forced one of our own to free them!”

“I understand where your intentions come from, miss Kane- I used to think similarly when I first joined Monarch.” Emma started. “But if we let this happen, there will be no going back. Tons of lives will be lost, and what will be left will be plunged into chaos. And that’s only with what we know about Earth’s Titans: Ghidorah isn’t part of the natural order, and they have the potential to disrupt it severely, if not destroy it beyond repair. Do you really want to to risk so much just for a slight chance of the planet healing?”

“... If that’s what it takes, yes.” Kane rubbed her eyes. “I suggest you all take refuge. We know Monarch has built bunkers in case of a mass extinction event caused by the Titans. I suggest you find them before Ghidorah comes out hiding.” Before anyone could say anything, she cut communication, plunging the room into a consterned silence.

You could hear a mutter of “That bitch.” from Dr. Chen, 

“Well,” Stenz started. “I’m certainly surprised her message didn’t resonate with you people-”

“ _You. Shut .Up._ ” Florès hissed, glaring at a bewildered Stenz through the screen. “As far as I’m concerned, Ghidorah being free is _your_ fault, and I don’t want to hear you tell us how Monarch should do their job, or that they have any affiliations with those madmen from the T.L.F., ever again, got it!? If you do, you’re next on the list of people I have to do some... _idle snooping around_ about.”

“... Got it.” The admiral closed the screen shortly afterwards, a sigh of relief coming from almost everyone at this.

“We need to find a way...” Serizawa muttered under his breath, before turning toward the programmer. “Florès? I’m going to ignore the fact that I should probably fire you for cybercrimes on two conditions: find as much information as you can on the Titan Liberation Front, and use it to make their life a living hell.”

Florès smiled. “Of course, Serizawa.”

“Everyone else: get to work. We have to start preparing for the worst.”

* * *

Alright, Rodan had been back for a while now. He just needed to walk up to him, give him that stupid stone, and walk away. It was simple. A child could do it. Too bad the literal hundreds of nightmare scenarios going through Ni’s head simultaneously prevented him from moving from the rock he was hiding behind.

He took a peak, looking at Rodan. The bird was currently eating a fish, facing away from Ni’s point of view. He also seemed to be struggling with it, for some reason. Ni took a deep breath through his nose to steady himself, before getting up and walking up to him. “Rodan.”

“Gah!” Rodan exclaimed, turning toward Ni, before deflating a bit. “Don’t scare me like that.” He then turned back toward his fish, taking another bite and pulling a face as he did so. “Urgh, rotting flesh is the worst...”

Ni raised an eyebrow. “What do you usually eat?”

“Roots, nuts, insects, fish but prefer when it’s fresh... sometimes, humans would leave me grain in offerings, always a nice surprise.” Rodan answered. “... kind of palled to when they would kill one of their own in front of me as spectacle, but hey.”

“You don’t know what a sacrifice is?” When Rodan shook his head, Ni sat down. “It’s... an gift mortals give to gods by destroying or abandoning something dear, often the life of the sacrificed.”

“... yeah, sounds like something Quetz would’ve liked.” Rodan muttered, before shaking his head. “Don’t they know I’m not a god? I just... live here.”

“You’re bigger than them, at least one element obeys you, and you pretty much decide whether or not this island explodes.” Ni deadpanned. “To them, that’s enough.”

“... Uh.” Rodan took another bite of his fish, cringing as the flesh hit his tongue.

“If you don’t like it, stop eating it.”

“I can’t just stop eating it, I can’t find any other kind of food around here!”

Find food he can eat to get on his good side. Got it. “Why not just absorb energy, then?” Rodan seemed to freeze at that. “Well?”

“... can’t absorb any if I’m not in lava...” He finally muttered. As Ni opened his mouth, he snapped. “And no, I can’t just live the rest of my life in lava. Sure, it’s warm and I don’t risk ever being hurt in it again, but... I’m the only thing it doesn’t burn to the touch. I can’t see. I can’t hear. I can’t talk with anyone. I’m... I’m all alone.” Rodan shook his head. “That’s no way to live, so I try to stay out of it.”

“... San could teach you how to do it.” Ni finally said, Rodan turning toward him with a perplexed expression. “He’s the more spiritual out of the three of us... and he’s better with words than me... since we’re talking about San-” Ni took a hold of Rodan’s wrist, the bird screeching before realizing he was just putting something in his hand. “He found this, and wanted me to give it to you.”

 _There_ , it was done.

Ni closely watched Rodan as he reacted to the gift. After a few seconds of watching him, bewildered, he actually looked at the rock on his hand. After a few seconds of confusion, Rodan’s eyes widened, and his face turned a bright orange. “I- uh- erm-” He put the stone down, doing a strange gesture with his hands as he looked away.

Ni frowned at that. He understood, logically, that Rodan’s blood was lava-like from their fight. But why was it coming to his face? Was he overheating for some reason? Was he dying!? Was that why he couldn’t speak!? No no no no no, they needed him alive to get out of here.

Ni picked up Rodan, the bird squawking as he dragged him up. “I- what are you-” He started trashing in his grip as he realized that he was bringing him to the water, clutching at him with both set of claws. “No, NO- DO NOT FUCKING THROW ME INTO THE WATER-”

“You’re overheating, you need to get cooled down-”

“Overheat- I’M THE FIRE GUARDIAN, I _CAN’T_ OVERHEAT!!!” Rodan finally screeched, freeing himself from Ni’s hold.

Ni’s only reaction was to frown. “Then why was your face turning orange?”

“I was flustered! That happens!” Rodan exclaimed. “What, have you never seen someone flustered before!?”

“I have not.” Rodan blinked at Ni, before sighing. 

“I’m fine. Your gift just... caught me off-guard.” There was a heavy silence, before Rodan broke it. “Do you have something I could use to wear it, like a thin rope or something?” 

“No... wait.” Ni grabbed a few of his hair, tugging them out and braiding them together in a thin rope. “Hand me the stone, sit down, and turn around.” Rodan quickly followed the instructions, Ni wrapping the cord around the stone to make a necklace. “There we go... What was that thing you did with your hands earlier? He asked as he tied the cord around Rodan’s neck.

“Oh, sign words. I was saying thank you.” He answered. Ni made an inquisitive noise. “Basically, you speak with your hands instead of your mouth. Mothra taught me some time after I became the Fire Guardian because my transformation wasn’t finished and I couldn’t speak. I think the monkeys are the ones who invented it to talk with their worshippers.”

“I see... would you... mind teaching me?” Ni asked, trying to make his voice seem softer.

Rodan blinked, before nodding, turning toward Ni and sitting down. “Alright. Let’s start with the basics...”


	25. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Battra brings Mothra to the Tapestry.

Mothra softly landed in front of the temple, Battra not too far in front of her. She raised her head, a pang of nostalgia hitting her at the sight of Styx’s statue. “Sister?” Battra called, turning toward her.

Mothra shook her head, bringing a hand to her eyes. “Sorry... coming here always reminds me of mother.”

Battra frowned sadly, walking to his sister and putting his hand on her shoulder. “It’s alright. Take a moment to steady yourself.” Mothra nodded, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

She opened her eyes. “Alright, let’s go.” Battra nodded, taking her hand and escorting her to the inside of the temple, approaching the basin of water in the small room before the main area. “Remember to wash up.”

Mothra nodded, soaking her hands in the basin as Battra moved on into the main area, which was hidden from view by a silk curtain she had helped him make. She turned back toward the basin, watching water droplets fall from her hands.

She knew what Battra wanted to show her. The flowers from the Tapestry were no doubt wilted, dried up from how much the planet had warmed. The yellow flowers representing deserts had probably spread, and the amount of white flowers for the poles shrunk. And where humans had built major settlement, flowers would’ve fallen.

She just hoped she’d be able to convince Battra to not go on a rampage.

Mothra dried her hands off, entering the main area of the temple. Battra was kneeling in front of the Tapestry, looking at the flowers that had fallen off. She approached him. “How many of us died?”

He looked up at her. “There’s only one monkey, one spider and one beetle left. Varan is dead, his island sunk. Titanos is dead, wound compliction. Bagan is dead, I have no idea what happened. Dogora is dead, starvation. Camazotz is dead, old age. Caesar is still alive, but I don’t like his chances. Same for Megalon, and it’s looking even worse for him due to having been asleep for so long. Your mate’s sister is not only also still alive, but she’s also not at risk, somehow.”

“Then why would you mention her-”

“Because if there’s one of us who was mostly guaranteed to die during hibernation, it’s her.” Battra explained as he got back up, hands full of dead flowers. “She bleeds too easily.”

“And she’s aware of how easily she bleeds. She wouldn’t have learned how to dodge so well if she didn’t.” Mothra reminded him, before taking a closer look at the mural. All of the changes she had predicted where there, so she wasn’t too surprised by that. So she directed her attention to Rodan’s flower. Indeed, it was closed, with the three, strange golden flowers representing Ghidorah close to it and also closed. Out of the way of reality. She smiled. “Rodan’s really starting to come into his role as a Guardian.”

Battra raised an unconvinced eyebrow. “Please take a good look at what his flower is surrounded by. Or rather, what it’s _not_ surrounded by.”

Mothra frowned, before bringing her attention to it. Her frown deepened as she noticed the lack of other flowers, and her eyes widened when she brought her fingers to it, the stone crumbling to dust under her fingers. Dead. “Wh- what happened!?”

“ _Humanity_ happened.” Battra hissed. “By now, you should know that their arrogance will lead to the destruction of us all.”

* * *

“So, what was, like, the initial ‘worst case scenario’ Monarch envisioned?” Florès asked, sipping from his cup of coffee. He and quite a few other Monarch scientists were currently in the break room, having lunch. Normally, the younger man would stay in his office, but the doctor had told him to take regular breaks where he wouldn’t be tempted to work to keep his stress levels low. “Before the whole Ghidorah thing, I mean.” Obviously, it wasn’t working as well as intended.

“It was generally agreed that the Titans sending us back to the Stone Age was the worst case scenario...” Coleman informed him. “Personally, however? We all personally have things we’d rather not see captured on camera.”

Florès tilted his head at that. “Like what?”

“... for me, it’s the inside of their mouths.” Coleman admitted, sounding queasy. “It’s just... urgh. Look up animal mouths, it’s disgusting.”

“We’re talking ‘Godzilla slaps is own eyeballs with his tongue to blink’ disgusting or ‘Rodan has fucked up goose teeth’ disgusting?” Florès asked, a smile forming on his face when he saw the disgust and fear form on Coleman’s.

“‘Rodan has fucked up goose teeth’ disgusting, and Godzilla had working eyelids.” Emma deadpanned from where she was sitting. “And anyway, the inside of a Titan’s mouth is preferable to understanding how their... powers... work.”

Florès tilted his head in curiosity. “I thought you’d like to know how all of that would work?”

“I do, but... if that information got out, who knows what people would do with it.” Emma muttered, shaking her head. “So, as much as I’d like to know how it works, I fear the worst-case scenario of it being used as weapons.”

“Oh, come on!” Florès whined. “I was expecting something stupid, not something straight from your heart! Dr Chen,” The mythologist turned toward the mechanic “Do you have any fucked up, but not sad Titan things you don’t want so see captured on camera?”

Chen seemed to think for a moment, before her face brightened in realization. “Oh! There’s multiple instances in mythology of Titans eating other Titan’s carcasses, especially their heart. While that kind of thing isn’t unheard of in both the animal kingdom and ancient civilizations, it _is_ pretty gruesome, and could be used by anti-Titans group to showcase that they’re mindless beasts.”

“... Uh.” The mechanic took a sip of his coffee. “Hostia. Kind of surprised no one mentioned courting rituals and everything related to them.” Florès pulled a face. “Like, if there’s one thing I don’t want to see, it’s that.”

“... What do you mean?”

Florès gave a sharp smile to Coleman. “Look up animal genitalia.”

* * *

“... I’m sure it’s not arrogance.” Mothra started, trying to ignore how she felt she had been stabbed. “Humans probably don’t realize the full consequences of their spreading. As for Mara, I’m certain you’re doing what you did with Mu’s weather control machine: you’re blaming a whole for the actions of a few!”

Battra groaned, visibly exasperated. “You still insist on defending humans? After everything they’ve done!? Are you so blinded by your love of them that you can’t uphold your duty of protecting our planet’s life?”

“I am focused on my duty of preserving life, brother.” Mothra hissed. “Including the one of humans! _You’re_ the one who’s blinded, by your anger. You keep letting the crimes of a few human warp your perception, and hurt innocents in the process! Poor Manda was _crushed_ by your rampage in Mu!”

“My perception of humans is _not_ warped! In fact, I see them for who they are more clearly than _you_ ever will! They’ve hurt the planet and other Titans before, and they’ll do it again! In fact, _they already have!_ ”

Mothra blinked. She had seen the patch of death, but Rodan’s flower seemed healthy... “What do you mean by that?”

Battra said nothing, simply pointing to one of the larger flowers. A very much wilted, but still attached to the Tapestry, flower with large bright blue petals. _Godzilla_.

Mothra could feel her heart shattering in a million pieces. _What in Terra’s name had happened on Mara!?_


	26. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily expressed her doubts to Jonah, and Rodan dips his toes in meditation.

“Sir?” Jonah raised his head from his computer, frowning as he saw Emily. The young woman seemed worried about something. “May I come in?”

He softened his face a bit. “Of course.” Emily nodded, coming into the room and sitting down in front of her boss’ desk. Jonah took his hands away from the keyboard, folding them over his desk. “What’s wrong? Are you afraid Monarch knows of our headquarters’ position?”

“No! No, it’s not about that.” Following Florès’ exposing of their takeover of Outpost 32 to the military, the Titan Liberation Front had had to leave in an emergency, coming back to their base in Boston. It had quickly been followed by Emily doing a quadruple check of the security system.

The only trace from Florès she had found was an encoded message on a Word document that hadn’t been there before.

_Remember, Jonah doesn’t trust you..._

“Well then, what is it about?”

“... are you sure waking all the Titans is the way to go?” Emily asked, frowning. When Jonah narrowed his eyes, she quickly tried to correct herself. “I-I mean I know they’re the only ones who can save the planet at this point and that not waking them would just delay the inevitable, b- but what if when we free all of them, we end up regressing back to the Stone Age-”

“Emmy.” Jonah suddenly cut her off. She flinched away. Emmy was a nickname her parents had given her before they had died. Jonah was pretty much the only person close to her who was still allowed to use it. “Why are you so worried? Humanity going back to a time were they held no impact on the planet is an ideal scenario.”

“I- it’s not just about that... it’s Ghidorah.” She started. “It’s- they’re not from Earth, they’re not going to restore the planet- they’re destroying it- it’s not going to be the co-existence you told me about, they’re a walking extinction event-”

“Kane.” Jonah started, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Are you telling me you’re having second doubts now? You were fine with millions of people dying, but you’re going to draw the line at billions of people dying?”

“That’s not what I said-”

“If we’re a sickness,” Jonah started, circling his desk, “and the Earth Titans are a fever, then Ghidorah is both the cure and the vaccine. It doesn’t matter what our intentions are: what’s important is that humans won’t be able to rise up again once they’re done, and the planet will only benefit from it. Do you understand?”

“... yes, sir.”

“And if we do _live_ to see this mass extinction event through...” He placed his hand on Emily’s shoulder, making her flinch. “I trust you and your talents will help us out, yes?” Jonah smiled down reassuringly at her, patting her shoulder.

_... And you shouldn’t trust him._

Emily hesitantly nodded, remembering the message Florès had left her. “O- of course, sir.”

* * *

“You want me to teach you how to absorb energy?” Rodan nodded, San turning away from the coast to look at him instead, still not getting up. The sun was starting to set, and Ghidorah had made it very clear they were fascinated with the sky and the objects in it. There was also the fact they drew most of their energy from it. “Any reason why this sprang up?”

“I’m having difficulties finding food, and your brother mentioned you could teach me how to do it.” Rodan explained, sitting down and craning his neck up to look at San. “Something about being more spiritual.”

San nodded. “That is true. Ichi’s too clinical, and Ni convinced himself that if he allows himself to be vulnerable, he’ll die.” There was a pause. “Either way, neither can meditate if I’m not here. Can you absorb energy on your own, like, consciously?”

“Not consciously, I just start doing it automatically the moment I submerge myself in lava.”

“Partially, or fully?”

“Both. The more I’m submerged, the easier it is.”

San nodded. “Alright, that means you’re the unconscious type. We’re gonna try to meditate, okay? Okay. I want you to close your eyes, and breath in a pattern: 4 seconds in, 4 seconds hold, 8 seconds out. You think you can do it?”

“Yeah, I’m not an idiot.” Rodan hissed out, San giggling to himself before closing his eyes. Rodan watched the taller one do it a few times, before attempting himself. He started taking a deep breath. 1, 2- _Heat, too much heat, feathers burned off, scalp burning, sides of mouth splitting, veins bursting, eyes burning, heart burning, too much light, no noise, nothing, lost everything-_

“Hey, hey.” Rodan opened his eyes, craning his neck up to look at San. The blond had a worried look on his face. “You weren’t able to get it in. What went wrong?”

“I felt like I was burning from the inside out.” Rodan wheezed out in a shaky tone, before stopping and taking a moment to gather himself. When he spoke again, his voice was steadier. “Am I supposed to feel like I’m losing control of my powers?”

“You’re not. Probably. I don’t feel like I’m getting struck by lightning when I meditate, but I _do_ feel like I’m floating... You said you felt like you were burning, right...?” San seemed to think for a moment, before holding his hands out. “Take my hands.”

“... alright?” Rodan hesitantly put his hands in San’s. He shuddered. Apparently, the cold from the ice had seeped into their very being. It felt as if frost spread were his hands touched San’s. Long fingers curled around his hands, and he shivered as he felt a shock run through his body.

“If you start feeling too hot again, focus on my hands, alright?” Rodan nodded, closing his eyes again as he took a deep breath. 1, 2- _liquid fire in his lungs, in his heart, can’t breath, can’t talk, all alone-_ he squeezed San’s hands, all cold and long fingers and letting off small shocks each time they moved- shaky 3, steady 4. He opened one eye as they held their breath in, but quickly closed it again when he saw San’s were still closed. He let it out, and San giggled. “See? You did it!”

“Y- yeah.” Rodan couldn’t help but blush. “I guess I did. What now?”

“We continue. Try to find your own rhythm. I’ll follow you.” Rodan nodded, resuming the exercise as they slowly adapted to his own breathing- which was more along the lines of 5,3,8. He could practically hear his own heart beating, how the magma flowed in his veins. Slowly everything seemed to fade away, the only thing left being the hands he held. “Rodan?”

“Mmm?”

“Open your eyes.” Rodan carefully opened one eye, before looking around in confusion.

They weren’t on Mara anymore. The sky had become whirls of color he couldn’t put a name on, and the ground a flat expense of white sand covered by a thing layer of water. Thousands upon thousands of stars filled the sky. Rodan blinked in confusion. “What the...?”

“What, first trip to the Soul Realm?” Rodan turned toward San, and screamed in surprise, letting go of his hands. Instead of San, there was now a vaguely San-shaped golden floaty _thing_ in front of him, three pairs of round white eyes staring at him.

“Wh- _San_!?” He exclaimed in surprise, the spirit nodding. “What happened? Where are we? Where did Mara go? Why do you look like that-”

“One question at a time, okay? First, we’re meditating. This is what happens when you successfully separate your soul from your body. This is the Soul Realm, or the place between life and death. Mara didn’t go anywhere, in fact our bodies are still on it, alive and soaking in energy. And I look like that because that’s what my soul is like.”

Rodan groaned. “Great. And I thought the moth’s whole deal was weird...”

San giggled. “Don’t be like that, fire bird. I mean, look at you! You’re practically _wrapped_ in fire!”

“What are you talking about- woah!” Rodan looked at his hands. His sleeves had been replaced by feathers of fire, dragging after him like a train as he got up. He slowly moved his arms, watching the flames move in synch.

He slowly started laughing, running around in circles and watching the fire around him grow larger, brighter, encompassing him. He distantly registered San laughing along or telling him to spin as he danced around, but he complied anyway, flames growing with each gleeful pirouette he did.

“You’re even brighter than the precious Fire guardian!” Rodan came to a halt at that, the flow of flames around him dying. San tilted his head at that, Round eyes becoming ovals in an imitation of confusion. “What’s wrong?”

“... Quetz had similar flames?”

“Oh yeah!” San cheerfully said, seemingly obvious to Rodan’s distress. “She was really something to behold. A bloodlust that nearly rivals Ni’s, a flawless defense in her attack, and a passion-”

“-That shined brighter than the sun could ever hope to.” Rodan finished, his voice breaking a bit on that.

San tilted his head in curiosity. “... are you sure you’re alright? Each time the former Guardian of fire comes up, you get really sad.” Rodan said nothing, simply maintaining his lack of eye contact. “With how you and your people’s hierarchy work, I thought you’d be happy about a runt like you getting close to the top of the food chain-”

Rodan’s flames flared up again, this time in anger as he screeched. “WHY WOULD I BE HAPPY ABOUT MY MATE DYING-” The flame went back to a smolder as he realized in horror what he had just blurted out. There was no way they wouldn’t try to use that against him-

San looked impassive, but what he said sounded... horrified? “You... your mate died and you ended up taking her place!?”

“I- I don’t know why it happened either-” Rodan started, the pent-up frustration and anxiety and despair that had accumulated and festered over the years starting to come out as yellow flames started surrounding them. “It’s just- we were trying to start a family and one of the attempts finally took- and before I knew it the volcano we nested in erupted and we lost the eggs and I lost a wing and she choked on the smoke and I _tried_ to join them but _Terra wouldn’t let me die-_ ”

Rodan came to a halt as he felt two hands come up to his face. San was looking down at him, all three pair of eyes narrowed. “How cruel.” He blankly stated. “Instead of letting you join her, your god- Terra, is it?- has decided to throw her death right in your face by making you her successor... are you not angry at her?”

Rodan grabbed San by the wrists, taking his hands away from his face. “Why do you care? It’s not like you ever lost anyone dear to you.”

“I have, actually.” Rodan’s eyes widened in surprise. He would’ve called bullshit, but something about San when he said it made him seem more... vulnerable. “Back when we lived in space. He often helped us, we had similar point of views, and he was very fun to be around. A bit similar to you, really. Losing him so suddenly is what drove us to come here.”

“Oh.” Rodan took a hold of San’s hand, squeezing reassuringly. “I’m so sorry for your loss... was his death brutal, or... ?”

“Oh, he didn’t die, firebird.” San started ominously, standing to his full height. “He betrayed us.”

“W- what?” Rodan’s eyes widened in horror. As far as he was concerned, once mated, you essentially pledged your very being to that person. And while a relationship between mates _could_ die if given enough time, betraying them before breaking off was _never_ an option. “Why would he do that!?”

“Weaker beings are afraid of what they don’t understand, and _we_ are very hard to understand.” San stated, his voice back to it’s dissonant cheerfulness. “I mean, I’m very sure you’ve seen quite a few humans who didn’t like Titans and wanted them dead-”

Rodan didn’t process what came out of San’s mouth next. He was too focused by his arms breaking off, separated from his shoulders by tiny black, pointy sticks. He opened his mouth to scream, only for more sticks to lodge themselves in his lips and throat, chocking off any sounds that would come out of it. As those sticks started tearing into his chest, is vision went blurry, the entire world around him melding in a sick spiral of colors, gold at it’s center.

“Rodan!? RODAN! ** _OPEN YOUR EYES!!!_** ” Rodan opened his eyes, eyes turned to the ground and whole body shaking as he hyperventilated. He was back in the real world. ‘Hey, hey, it’s fine, you’re fine, there’s no danger- **_Look at me._** ” He slowly looked up. The light of the mostly set sun was casting strange, moving shadows on San, his glowing red eyes amplifying the strangeness of his sharp features. “What’s wrong?”

“C- Can’t breath-”

San frowned. “ ** _Breath, then_**.” He sang, his voice echoing onto itself.

Rodan didn’t know why he wasn’t ignoring the Ghidorah’s songs. Hell, they were the whole reason he had built up his immunity to _all_ Calls, thanks in no small part to hanging out with Godzilla so much. But that didn’t mean he didn’t feel the _pull_ of it. And he was too shaken to not listen right now. He took in a large gulp of air, breathing in short, quick bursts as San held onto his hands.

“Do you want to talk about what _that_ was about?” San asked, tilting his head. Rodan shook his head. Revealing his relationship with Quetzalcoatl could’ve gone wrong very fast, and he attributed San having someone similar to a pure stroke of luck on his part. There was no way Ghidorah could’ve ever been hurt by beings so much smaller and weaker than them. He hoped the other wouldn’t push it.

But San just nodded, letting go of Rodan’s hands and gently bending forward as his breathing calmed down. It’s then he realized. “It worked.”

San blinked in confusion. “Uh?”

“The meditation, it worked!” Rodan cheerfully exclaimed, pushing his earlier thoughts in a corner of his mind. “I feel stronger then befo-”

“Rodan.”

“GAH!” Rodan turned his head, only to see Ni staring down at him and San. “I told you not to sneak up on me like that!”

Ni simply shrugged in indifference. “You’ll get used to it.”

“Oh, hi Ni!” Ni nodded at San, before kneeling down, facing Rodan.

“I found something you might like.” Ni told him, handing him a handful of something. Rodan’s eyes widening in surprise when he realized it was a handful of small roots, nuts and grains. “You told me you couldn’t eat the fish around the island anymore, so I tried to find something you could eat in the human settlement. It’s not a lot, but it should be better than rotten fish.”

Rodan smiled, bringing the handful of food to his mouth and swallowing. He then turned toward Ni, his face glowing a bit. “And it is. Thank you, Ni.”

Ni frowned, bringing a hand to Rodan’s face. “Are you _sure_ you’re fine? Blood keeps rushing to your face.”

 _That_ snapped Rodan out of his relaxed state of mind. He jumped up, the flush growing bigger as he did so. “Of course I’m fine, whywouldntIbefine-”

“Rodan, it’s fine, sit down-”

“AnywayitsgettinglateandIneedtosleepgoodnight!” Rodan exclaimed, followed by a strong wind that carried him off to the top of his volcano. Ni and San could see his silhouette collapse at the top of it, followed by a strange, quiet shriek.

San turned toward his brother, smiling. “Good idea to find him food!”

Ni blinked. “I didn’t think my efforts to make him like me were working.” When San gave him a confused frown, he shrugged. “Each time I try to be nice to him, he keeps getting... flustered. Embarrassed. That’s not a good thing.”

“... He’s _touched_.” San blankly stated. “You keep giving him gifts, Ni. Of course he’s gonna keep blushing.”

“How did you figure out he needed food?” The two turned toward Ichi, who they knew had been watching them for a time.

San waved as their older brother sat down. “Hi brother Ichi!”

“He... told me?” Ni tried hesitantly. “It’s why I told him to talk to San. So he could learn to absorb energy without soaking himself in lava. Help him stay not weak.”

Ichi nodded. “Either way, good job. The both of you.” Ni sighed in relief and San beamed at the praise. His good mood only improved as Ichi pat him on the head. “If we continue like that, we’ll be out of this place sooner than later.”


	27. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mothra finds Godzilla, and Madison has a weird dream.

Mothra crawled out of the hole, head upside down as she shook herself free of debris, hands and feet clinging to the ceiling as she crawled away from the tunnel. They had to use the tunnels that connected Styx’s temple to Dagon’s former nest to find their way here, after all. “Battra? Is everything alright?”

Battra groaned as he came out of the tunnel, holding himself upright with a pair of hands clutching at the ledge. His wings flapped a bit behind him. “I hate travelling underground in adult form, but beside that? I’m fine.”

“What the- WHAT IN METHUSELAH’S NAME ARE YOU TWO _DOING_ UP THERE!?” Both Mothra and Battra bent their heads to look at the ground, a very confused Anguirus looking up at them from the bottom of the stairs that led up to the altar.

Both Mothra and Battra let go of their hold, flapping their wings as they neared the floor to cushion their fall. Mothra turned toward Anguirus. “Where is Godzilla!?” She asked with urgency in her tone. “We were at the Tapestry and his flower was all wilted and-”

“I- it’s alright, Mothra.” Anguirus started, making a gesture for Mothra to calm down. before pointing at the altar behind him. “Goji’s right there, and resting. He’s in a pretty bad state, but I was able to stabilize him.” He reassured her, a sigh of relief leaving the moth.

Battra pat her on the shoulder reassuringly, before looking up at Anguirus. “Do you know what caused his condition?”

Anguirus shook his head. “He doesn’t either. He said he was fighting Ghidorah, and then there was a bright light?...” He hissed through his teeth. “I can’t imagine what the surface looks like right now, with those three rampaging...”

“It’s fine, actually.” Battra started, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “The third member of your trio of idiots is somehow holding them outside of reality, and he shows no intention of letting go or dying anytime soon.”

Anguirus laughed, rubbing the back of his head. “That’s Rodan for you! There’s always one of us up to make Ghidorah’s life as difficult as possible! And...” He frowned. “Do _you guys_ know what hurt Goji like that? Because it can’t be Ghidorah. It happened underwater, and they’re pretty useless underwater.”

“Probably humans.” Battra hissed.

Mothra turned toward her brother with a frown, and Anguirus looked at him, confused. “Why- no, how would humans be able to do that?”

“I don’t know how, but I do know the why: to prove that they can and are above obeying the laws of nature.” Battra hissed, Anguirus raising an unconvinced eyebrow in response.

“They’re small and harmless and you’re just looking for an excuse to go an another rampage.”

“Well, unless you can name a Titan able to do that kind of damage, I’m going to assume that humans- who have regularly proven themselves to be more dangerous than anyone gives them credit for- are behidn this and- Mothra where are you going-”

“I’m going to go check on my mate while you two argue like petty childrens.” Mothra answered as started climbing up the stairs, leaving Anguirus and Battra behind as she made her way to Godzilla. Her mate was currently lying on the floor, eyes closed and dark hair lying around him in a puddle. A distressed thrill escaped her as she approached him, kneeling down and putting a hand on his back.

Godzilla opened his eyes, labored breathing picking up as he woke up. He frowned in confusion when he saw her. “Mothra?... Why are you...”

“Hush, my love. That’s not important.” She told him, taking a hold of his face as she came closer. “What’s important is that I need to heal you.”

Godzilla nodded, letting Mothra turn him on his back as she laid his head in her lap. As her wings started to rise behind her, patterns glowing a soft shade of green, he spoke up. “Wait.”

Mothra looked at him, concerned. “What is it?”

“Before I go back to sleep...” He smiled weakly. “Can I get a kiss?”

Mothra smiled, bending down and kissing her mate. “Of course. Now, rest, and do not worry about everything else, alright? We’ll take care of it.”

Godzilla smiled, before allowing himself to fall into a deep sleep, a soft blue light surrounding them.

* * *

Madison stared at the ceiling, wide awake at a far-too-early hour to be awake at. She groaned. No use trying to get back to sleep now... she got out of bed, slipping her feet into slippers to avoid the cold metal floor. She quietly got out of her room, and then the two-room-and-one-bathroom quarters she had shared with her parents since first arriving at Castle Bravo.

She quietly tip-toed around the living area until she reached a small dining area, surprised at seeing light streaming out of the door. Was someone already awake? She opened the door slowly, surprised to see Florès standing in front of a coffee machine, wearing . She slowly came into the room, sitting at a small, round table. “Uh. I didn’t take you for an early riser.”

Florès turned toward her, somehow looking unimpressed. “Me estoy preparando para la cama, Russellita.”

It took Madison a few seconds to translate what the older man had said. “You’re going to bed _now_? It’s like 5:30.”

“Sí, no vi pasar el tiempo. Pasa algunas veces.”

“... Okay, okay. Can you switch to English please? I can understand Spanish, but you’re speaking really fast, and your accent is making it hard to understand.”

“Que- mierda, I didn’t notice. Sorry, I tend to forget how to use English when I’m tired.” Florès explained.

“It’s fine, it’s just- my Spanish isn’t really good...” She started. “I’ve been learning it for a year at school now, but I only have the grasp of a five years old on it...”

“And how fucking long do you think it took the five years old?”

“... okay, fair.” She sat there for a moment, looking in front of her as she thought about her dream. She didn’t notice Florès walking up to her until he put a cup of something in front of her. “What’s that?”

“My nana’s chocolate caliente recipe. It’s good.” Madison nodded, taking a sip and feeling the drink warm her up from the inside out.

Florès sat down with his own cup. “Something bothering you and keeping you up, Russellita? Pesadillas?”

“... I didn’t learn that word...”

“Nightmares?” Madison shook her head.

“I mean, it _is_ a dream, but... it’s not a bad one. Just weird. I don’t think you’d be interested, it concerns the Titans.”

“Fire away.” Florès said with resignation in his voice. “It’s not like I’m ever going to be able to avoid hearing about these monstruos as long as I’m in Monarch. At least, the way you talk about them doesn’t fill me with pavor existencial at each word.”

“Well... Mothra and Battra were underground, talking to Anguirus while Godzilla was laying not too far away. At some point, Mothra went to talk to him when Battra and Anguirus started arguing, and she started healing him, and... kissed him? Anyway, I think Godzilla might still be alive.” Madison looked hopefully at Florès, who’s expression was incomprehensible. “What do you think?”

“I think you should talk about the fact that you seem to have an enlace psíquico with the Titans to your Madre.” Florès deadpanned, before frowning in confusion. “Padre? No lo sé, tell your parents you probably have magic powers related to the Titans. Wouldn’t be the first time that happened, you could hear Ghidorah talk, after all.”

“... Okay, but...” She sighed. “So much stuff has already happened to me, I don’t- I don’t know how they would react. Mom’s scared of the Titans, and Dad doesn’t really like them either... I think he thinks we should kill them.”

“Tonto.” Florès muttered. “As if we could kill demons.”

Madison frowned. “The Titans aren’t demons!”

“Then what _are_ they!?” Florès asked. “Because Gods wouldn’t destroy the world they created for no reasons. I don’t- I don’t _actually_ think they’re demons, okay? I don’t think they’re evil But... you have to understand that they’re not good either. They’re like us, people, just scaled up and with magical powers. They just woke up in an unfamiliar world, and they’re confused and scared but they could also raze us to the ground as an _afterthought_ , and we should leave them alone instead of studying them like wild animals. I’m calling them demons because it’s the closest thing I can think of to describe them, _not_ because I hate them.”

“I don’t believe they’re Gods either.” Madison started, surprising Florès. “I never said that. In fact, I agree with most of your points. But... they live here. It’s not their fault they’ve been hibernating since before written language became a thing. We should try to figure out how to communicate with them, help them, not... cower away and hope they won’t kill us. And there’s proof it happened before! Titans, and humans, co-existing. Why can’t we do it again now?”

“... Russellita.” Florès started, a tired frown on his face. “I respect the fact that you think the Titans should be treated as amnesiac old friends who just came out of a coma. Por favor, respect the fact that I think they should be left alone to figure their own shit out.” There was a pause as they both sipped from their hot chocolate. “If you want, I’ll help you talk about it to an adult in the morning, okay?”

“... Okay.”


	28. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Florès and Madison learn about past human-titan relationships, and Rodan and Ichi share a dance.

“Uh, Serizawa?” Florès started, taking the opening of Graham being called elsewhere to attempt his question.

The older man turned toward him, the mechanic wincing as he saw the dark undereye circles. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one working ridiculous hours. “What is it?”

“Uh... weird things have been happening to Russellita, and I think it might be linked to the Titans?” He started, Serizawa frowning in confusion. “Nothing worrying, just... dreams. And she can actually hear what they’re saying.”

Serizawa’s eyes widened. “What!?”

“Don’t get your hopes up.” Florès started dismissively. “She can only hear them if she’s here in person. She actually hears what everyone else hears in recordings, so I wasn’t really able to add a lot of soundbanks-”

“No, Florès, this isn’t about that-” Serizawa cut him off, carding his hands through his hairs. “マディソンは本当にアウグルになることができますか？...”

“... ¿Qué?”

“I- you should go ask Dr. Chen.” Serizawa started, turning back toward Florès, who tilted his head in confusion. “There is a myth of peculiar humans having a link with Titans, but she’s more knowledgeable about it than I am.”

“Alright. Where is she right now?”

“Her office, third floor, trying to figure out if there is something similar that happened to Mara in the past.”

“‘Kay, thanks.” Florès said before leaving the main room, waving the Serizawa as another scientist came to talk to him.

He entered the elevator, where Madison was waiting. “So?”

“We need to go talk to Dr Chen.” Florès started, pressing the button to the third floor. “She’s the one that made that PowerPoint on the Titans.”

“Oh!” The elevator started, rising rapidly. “Did you remember to tell Mr. Serizawa about Godzilla still being alive?”

“... He started panicking when I told him you could hear Titans, so I decided to save it for later.” Florès explained, deciding it had less of a chance of making Madison mock him then ‘No, I forgot’.

Luckily for him, the elevator door opened just after, and the two walked out, searching for the mythologist’s office. Finally, they found a door with a plaque that read ‘Ilene Chen’. Florès knocked on it. “Come in” a voice on the other side said, and the two entered.

The first thing that Madison noticed was how different Chen’s office was from Florès’. The walls were covered in bookcases, all filled to the brim, instead of the occasional article for living like a mini-fridge. There was also an actual desk she worked at, also covered in books, instead of a worktable with a computer and multiple tools laying around on it.

Chen raised her head. “Oh, Florès! And... Madison?” Madison nodded. “How can I help you two?”

“I... I think I might have powers.” Madison started, taking a few steps forward. “Powers linked to the Titans.” 

Chen’s eyes widened, getting up from her seat. “What kind of powers?”

“I can hear them speak without any assistance, and I also have dreams about them.” She explained, Chen nodding as she started looking through folders stashed in a bookcase.

Florès raised an eyebrow. “Wait, there’s actually a myth about people being able to talk to Titans!?” Chne turned toward him momentarily to nod, before turning back toward the bookcase. “... Why do we need the ORCA, then?”

“1) Because it’s a myth.” Chen started, taking a folder and sitting back down. She opened it, showing the other two pictures of engraved walls and cave paintings. “We had no actual proof of it... until now, at least. 2) According to the myths, there can only be one Augur at a time.”

Florès and Madison frowned, looking at each other before turning their eyes toward Chen. “Uh... what’s an Augur in this context?”

“... Oh boy.” Chen sighed, flipping through the notes and photos in the file before closing it. She took a deep breath. “The Augur is, essentially, the link between humanity and Titans. They speak the will of the Titans to humans, and they explain humans’ actions to Titans. To do so, they are granted abilities, often when they are children. Amongst those abilities, being a spectator to Titan’s interacting through their dreams and understanding their language are usually the first ones that appear.”

“...Holy shit, Russellita, you actually _do_ have magical powers!” Florès exclaimed, eyes wide.

Madison numbly nodded, staring at her hands. The link between humans and Titans... She frowned. “Why me? I’m nothing special, I’m just- I’m a regular girl, and being an Augur sounds like something great people should be doing.”

“You’re also part of the very rare category of people who neither worship, fear, or hate Titans. Your only wish is to understand them.” Chen explained. “Monarch and the T.L.F. falls in the first category-”

“Uh, didn’t expect you guys to be self-aware.”

“-albeit for different reasons,” Chen snapped, the mechanic raising his hands when she sent him a frustrated look. ”The military falls in the third category, and most civilians would fall in the second. The only other person I can think of that falls into your category is, well...” She tilted her head in Florès’ direction, who shrugged.

“Oh, I _do_ fear them, don’t get me wrong.” He started. “Just not in the way one would fear God. More like one would fear an extremely unhinged neighbor who owns a flamethrower and keeps giving you the evil eye. And anyway, we only fear what we don’t understand, and I don’t like being scared. So understand them I’ll have to.” There was a pause. “Also, you guys are selling yourselves short. Isn’t the whole point of Monarch trying to understand the Titans?”

Chen snorted. “Would you look at that? You are capable of being nice!” 

There was snickering, and then a pause. “Can we... wait until I’m ready to tell more people?” Madison asked. This was still a lot to process. “Or at least until we’re a 100 percent sure about the Augur thing? I mean, it could be just a fluke, or...”

“Of course. Take all the time you need.”

“Sounds good to me.”

-

“-and that’s pretty much all I can think of for basic sentences to use on your brothers.” Rodan finished, putting his hands on his knees as Ni nodded. “Now, repeat what I just did.”

Ni raised his hands, signing the sentences as he spoke. “This is for ‘thank you’ and that’s for ‘please’, this is for ‘stop doing that’, that’s for asking them to do something, that’s light-hearted ribbing, telling them to leave me alone, asking for affection, and finally, this for ‘I... I... lov... I lo...’ urgh. You know what it’s for.”

Rodan nodded. Apparently, Ni was unable to say ‘I love you’ out loud for some reason. When asked about it, he had snapped that neither could Ichi or San and that it wasn’t just him being bad with words. This was... worrying, especially since it was clear to anyone who had eyes that can see that the three of them cared about each other more than anything.

But his hands had recreated the sign to perfection, and that was enough for Rodan. He nodded, clapping his hands a bit in encouragement. “Yeah, that’s it!” Ni’s lips twitched up. “Do you want to stop here for today, or...?”

Ni nodded, getting back up and offering a hand to Rodan as he did so. The shorter one took it, not very keen on the idea of staying seated and letting Ghidorah look even taller to him. “I’m done for the day. Do you want to stay with us for a bit?”

Rodan nodded, following Ni to the beach. Ghidorah had pretty much claimed this part of the coast as their own, setting up a mock-nest there. Ichi and San were already there, Ichi listening calmly and occasionally offering something as San rambled on in a language he didn’t understand. The bird watched as Ni joined them, kneeling on the ground as his brothers turned toward him.

He also saw him lift his hands to sign something, unable to say what it was from the angle he stood at. But considering a strange warbling noise left San’s mouth before he jumped Ni, squealing happily, it was probably positive.

Rodan made his way to Ichi, carefully avoiding the Ghidorah pile were strange thrilling and chirping noises were rising from. Ichi was looking at said pile, a dumbstruck look on his face. Rodan hesitantly raised his hand. “Hi.”

Ichi snapped toward him, before avoiding his gaze toward what Rodan could only assume was a very interesting rock. “Fire bird. Do you know where Ni learned those... symbols?”

“Oh, it’s sign words.” Rodan explained, oblivious to Ichi’s discomfort. “Ni told me he wasn’t really good with words, so I’ve been teaching him.”

“And you thought it would be a good idea to to teach him how to say ‘I lo’-” Ichi suddenly gagged on nothing, catching the both of them off-guard. For a few seconds, the only sound filling the air was the continuous, soft growling noise coming from San a distance away.

“Uh. So you guys really _can’t_ say ‘I love you’, uh?” Rodan noted, Ichi glaring at him.

“... Why would you teach him that?” He asked again, voice softer this time.

“Because I found it really sad and a bit worrying that you guys can’t say that you love each other out loud. Plus,” Rodan jerked his thumb toward Ni and San. They were now sitting up, San chirping happily and limbs wrapped around his brother as they cuddled. “your brothers seem pretty fine with it.”

Ichi groaned, burying his face in his hands. “Shut up...”

Rodan snorted at that, sitting down. “What, the ~Golden Demise~ can’t handle a bit of affection?” He taunted, Ichi sending him a look that could kill humans.

However, just as he opened his mouth, San jumped on him. Ichi yelped as the two fell to the ground, the strange growling chirps still leaving San as he rambled on in a manner that was _just_ coherent enough for Rodan to realize it wasn’t just gibberish. The fact that Ichi was answering in the same non-sensical speech also helped.

Rodan barely noticed Ni as he came to sit down, his hands signing ‘thank you’ as he did so. “For showing me how to say it.” He then clarified.

Rodan nodded, shrugging. “It’s nothing, really. No need to make a big deal out of it.”

“I’m being honest.” Ni insisted. “And not just because I don’t like lying: being able to tell my brothers I... care... for them almost makes me want to dance in joy.”

“I wanna sing!” San suddenly exclaimed, getting off of Ichi who had apparently been content to lay on the ground as his brother attempted to cuddle him to death. He was onto Ni again, eyes shining with unbridled joy. “I wanna sing while you dance!!!”

Ni yelped, putting a hand on San’s shoulder and pushing him away. “Emphasis on _almost_ , San!”

San pouted, sending a pleading at his brother, to no avail. Rodan looked off awkwardly to the side. “I... could dance?” He proposed, San snapping his head toward him with a big smile.

“Really!?”

“... yeah. I _could_.” Never mind that last time he danced, it was back when he was courting Quetzalcoatl. Was he so desperate for people that not only understood his anger, but supported him despite it that he was about to dance for the incarnations of Terra’s death? Was he really ready to sacrifice his integrity as a Guardian for Ghidorah’s possible support and affection-

Ichi must have sensed his hesitation, because he rose up, looking at Rodan with a neutral expression. “If you want, I could dance with you.”

This proposal made Rodan feel both better and worse for the exact same reason: the possibility that Ghidorah felt the same budding attraction. Nonetheless, he simply snorted, crossing his arms as he got up. “Wait, _that’s_ how you invite someone to a dance? Thought you had more charm to you.”

Ichi laughed. Not the usual sinister giggle or mad cackle Ghidorah gave, but an actual, genuine laugh. “I’m sorry about that, let me try again.” He cleared his throat, before bending down, offering his hand to Rodan. “May I have this dance?~”

 _Oh, there’s_ no way _this beautiful fucker isn’t doing it on purpose._ He took a deep breath, taking of his sleeves in the process. “... You may.” Rodan accepted, putting his hand Ichi’s. He gasped as he was dragged closer, Ichi’s legs bent in such a way that Rodan was eye level with his collarbone.

He looked off to the side, feeling his cheeks warm up as a chuckle left Ichi. “Don’t get shy _now_ , fire bird. I do prefer it when your bite matches your bark.”

Rodan raised an eyebrow at the challenge. “Oh, do you, _Ichi_?” He jerked his hand out of Ghidorah’s grasp, bringing both to Ichi’s waist before flipping their position. He used the new leverage to bend him down. He smirked at Ichi’s surprised expression. “You know, you should try getting on my level sometimes. Might get your head out of the clouds~”

Ichi’s expression changed to a grin at that, echoed by his brothers laughing a distance away. “Here’s that bite~” One of his hand came up, clawing at the back of Rodan’s head and using as leverage as he rose up a bit. “If you’re a good lead, I might just listen.” Their faces were dangerously close now, their lips almost brushing as he spoke- no, _sang_. “ ** _Show me what you’ve got, Rodan._** ”

Well, he didn’t have any reason to disobey _that_.

He lifted Ichi up, hands coming to hold his as he twisted him up, back against his front. Rodan moved his hands, coming to rest on Ichi’s crossed wrists instead. He barely registered the other shifting his hip, offering him a better view of what he was doing. An energetic but strange song started, courtesy of Ni and San.

He snapped his arms away, letting go of Ichi’s wrists in the process and making him spin. Rodan ran after him, fast and long strokes and light on his feet as he climbed up a rock. He grabbed Ichi by the shoulders as he reached the top, pulling him toward him. The music reached a crescendo as he used his grip to hoist himself up upside down onto Ichi’s shoulder, before letting himself fall.

As he reached the ground, he grabbed Ichi’s wrist. He pulled the taller one down as he did so, rising up and catching him in his arms as long-fingered hands came to wrap around the back of his neck. Rodan paused at that, looking down at him with a wolfish grin. “How’s that for a dance?”

Ichi’s light laugh filled the air again. “Not bad at all!” Ichi raised himself, his hands sliding down Rodan’s arms to hold his. “Alright, _my_ turn to lead.” 

The movements were much slower this time, Ichi almost gliding over the ground as he guided Rodan around in lazy circles. The tempo his brothers were providing them had slowed down accordingly, picking up each time Ichi put Rodan in a different position.

He picked him up, holding his companion to his side as he smiled. Rodan smiled back, letting Ichi puppet him around in a weirdly comforting manner. Terra, had he missed this kind of affection. He never wanted this dance to end, he wanted to stay here forever, he wanted... he...

He wanted to punch himself in the face.

 _No, I can’t let myself get attached._ He had to remind himself as he and Ichi spun around, guided by San’s voice and Ni’s clapping as a calmer but still very strange song filled the air. _They’re the reason Mara is dead._

_They’re Ghidorah, and they came here to destroy our home._

Ichi took a hold of his waist, lifting him high in the air as easily as one would lift a twig.

_They’re death bringers, all they’re good for is killing._

He was gently set back on the ground, his hand sliding down Ichi’s arm and intertwining their fingers.

_Their storms wipe away everything under them. They..._

Ichi started twisting his wrist as he held onto his hand, making Rodan spin around him in circles.

_They..._

A sudden jerking made him lose his balance, bringing him close to Ichi as he started falling. His hand let go.

_They kill through storms._

Just as he was about to catch himself, Ichi bent down. Long fingers curled around his waist as the Ghidorah looked at him with an uncharacteristic soft expression, a few strands of long golden hair slipping over his shoulder.

_The sky was clear when death came to my home._

As Rodan was raised back up, he swung his legs up, wrapping them around Ichi’s torso as his arms came to wrap around his shoulders. He distantly registered Ni and San stopping their improvised song.

_Just this once, they’re innocent._

Ichi tilted his head in concern, gently prying Rodan off of him and setting him back on the ground.

_Just what else are those three innocent of?_

“Fire bird?” Rodan snapped his head up, eyes wide. Ichi was looking at him, a concerned frown on his face with both of his brothers peeking over his shoulders. “Is everything alright? You seem lost in thought.”

“I...” He separated himself from them, turning momentarily toward San when he moved toward him. “Yeah, I just... realized something-” He froze as San brought a hand to his face, brushing a few hair behind his hair.

The younger of the brothers had a calm look on his face, blinking slowly at him. “Don’t trouble yourself with anything unimportant, alright?”

The hand of another- Ni this time- came to hold his, dragging him toward the spot where the three usually slept. “Maybe stay with us tonight?” He then raised a hand, signing the word ‘please’.

Rodan numbly nodded, letting Ichi put a hand to his back to guide him. All four of them were unaware that it was at this precise moment that Ghidorah’s schemes both succeeded beyond measure, and fell apart in a million pieces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're nearing Ghidorah and Rodan wrecking shit up, I can't wait.


	29. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anguirus reminisces about simpler times with Mothra, and San reveals the plan to Rodan.

“Anguirus?” He snapped out of his trance, turning toward Mothra. Her wings were still open behind her, patterns glowing green as she absorbed energy. “Is everything alright? You’ve been awake for very long.”

He nodded. “Yeah, don’t worry. I just.. I wanna be there when he wakes up for real.”

Mothra sighed softly, turning toward her sleeping mate. Godzilla’s hair had switched from almost black to a dark, dull blue, and he was emitting his own light, even if it was much softer than her own. Not on the verge of dying anymore, stable even, but certainly not ready to fight.

“You should do like my brother.” Mothra told him, the two turning their head toward the rocky ceiling. Battra was hanging upside-down here, wings draped around him as he slept. “Rest, and conserve your energy.”

“I know I should, but...” Anguirus sighed. “Each time I lay down, I can’t help but think of all the good times I had with him. We’ve been friends for so long, I can barely remember a time when we weren’t... I don’t want to imagine what would happen if he actually did die.”

Mothra frowned sympathetically. Anguirus really was Godzilla’s oldest friend, wasn’t he? “Maybe talking about it would make you feel better?” She proposed.

Anguirus thought for a moment. “I mean, starting off, him dying from something we don’t know the source of is... pretty worrying? Especially when we look at everything else he survived: Ghidorah, Battra, Baragon, a shit-ton of Beetles, Manda pre-sinking of Mu, Ebirah-”

“You?” Mothra asked with a lilt in her voice. Anguirus couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“Yeah, me! And you too!” He noted. “I mean, he just came on my island one day, started screaming at the top of his lungs, and started wrecking shit up. What was I supposed to do, _not_ fight him to the death?”

Mothra laughed. “He never was good at negotiations, was he? During his quest to become King, he decided that the best way to make me come out to give him the Trial of Death was to deliberately provoke me.”

“At least, he had a reason for you! For me, he just wanted to kick someone’s ass because his sisters were teasing him!” Both laughed for a moment, before calming down. “Who else did he survive... ?”

“... Rodan.” Mothra muttered under her breath. “Dear Terra, _Rodan_ -”

Anguirus chuckled. “Yeah, that checks out. Rodan’s temper is even worse than his, would make sense the two would fight. He just takes longer to blow up.”

“No, you don’t get it- when Ghidorah was busy sinking Atlantis, _Rodan was busy fighting Godzilla_. When I found them, the two kept throwing a rock at each other- Rodan with his head- and I had to tie them up with silk so they would listen. The reason I sought them out is because at this point, they were the only ones who survived an encounter with Ghidorah in the past.”

“What were their reaction.”

“Rodan didn’t give a shit. Apparently, he thought that humans dying out would be a good thing because, and I quote, ‘they’re always mean to me’.” She snapped, Anguirus bursting into laughter. “And Godzilla agreed! Even after Rodan dropped him crotch-first into a tree!” The laughing doubled, Mothra joining in this time. “I mean... I was eventually able to convince them, and you know the rest.”

Anguirus nodded. “Five _fucking_ centuries we spent before we successfully sealed those fuckers away. And now, they’re free again, Godzilla’s dying, and Rodan won’t talk to us.”

Mothra frowned at that. “Don’t worry. We’ll find a way again.”

“I know, it’s just...” He sighed, closing his eyes and turning away. “I can’t help but wonder when it all went wrong.”

-

Rodan stared up at the sky, thoughts circling in his head at a frantic pace. He knew Ghidorah were not good people. They came down from the sky to destroy their world, starting with the king that came before Godzilla, shortly followed by his father, and all of the pretenders to the throne. They liked causing storms that wiped away everything under them for... what? Proving they could? Practice? Entertainment?

They were selfish monsters who only cared about themselves, and everything else was to be destroyed for mild amusement. He knew all that. But if that was the case, then why were they being so _kind_ to him?

Why was Ichi doing his hair for no reason and cuddling him and dancing with him and giving him compliments?

Why was Ni constantly bringing him gifts and food and trying to be less of a sharp weapon for his brothers to yield?

Why was San always so happy to see him and so patient and understanding when he messed up?

Surely, it must have been some kind of trick. Make him lower his guard so he’ll let them out. But they not being the reason why Mara had died, San opening up about his own past wounds, Ni making himself so vulnerable when he was teaching him sign words, still kept him questioning what their intentions were here.

The fact that he was currently being cuddled by all three was _not_ helping with his internal questioning.

He tried to get up, doing his best not to shake them awake, but immediately stopped as he heard San stir. Red eyes blink open in the darkness, locking onto him. “What are you doing?” He asked, a lilt to his voice indicating playfulness.

Before he could think of what to say, he opened his mouth and asked the question that pretty much summed up all of his current worries. “Why are you three being so nice to me?”

San blinked in confusion, tilting his head. “Because we like having you around- sorry, I don’t think I understand your question.”

Rodan laughed bitterly. “Oh please. Literally the only thing you three care about is yourselves.”

San frowned. “When did we ever give this impression?”

“Oh boy, where to _start_?” Rodan exclaimed, starting to remember acutely the things Ghidorah did in his presence, before all four of them were trapped on Mara. “Ichi thinks he stands at the top of everything, and that whatever doesn’t bend their back forward at the sight of him needs to be destroyed.”

( _Godzilla, staring into nothing, expressing doubt of being able to become King for the first time since the beginning on his campaign as he tells his friends how his father died while showing them a wound that would’ve killed him had it striked just a bit more to the left-_ )

“Or how about Ni jumping anyone who so much as threatens you three? Godzilla and everyone who’s ever met him are convinced that he lives to inflict physical pain.”

( _Shrieking laughter echoing as Mothra was punched by lightning again and again in her child form, almost killing her permanently but that clearly didn’t matter as much to Ghidorah as making her cry out for help and in pain-_ )

“And as for _you_...” Rodan said nothing after that. Just clutched at the wound on his chest San had inflicted millenias ago, suddenly very aware of the acute pain here. The first time he had been alone with the three of them...

( _Come back when you’re worth looking at._ )

“You like hurting people too. Not like Ni does, but you do. Your words...” He took a short breath through his teeth. “Your words _cut_ , and they cut _deep_.”

“Which is why you don’t want to hear the truth.” San suddenly said. All emotions were gone from his voice as big red eyes stared at Rodan, almost burning in the dark.

Rodan withheld it, narrowing his own eyes. “Don’t tell me what I want. The only person who can say what I want is me. Answer my question, San.”

“... We want you to let us out, so we’re being nice.” He admitted, voice still devoid of emotions. “That’s the main reason.”

Rodan frowned. “You guys do realize I’m not gonna let that happen, right? The only reason why I’m around you three is to not go insane mad from loneliness, you said it yourself. Being nice to me isn’t going to convince me you’re _actually_ nice.” Better not mention how much their kindness had shaken him.

“But it’ll make you lower your guard. Tell us things about yourself that you normally wouldn’t tell a soul. And then, once we’ve emptied you of all your secrets, we’d be able to destroy what’s left with an off-hand comment. And that’s when you’d let us out.” There was silence for a moment, before a shaky sound emerged from Rodan. San frowned as he recognized what it was. Laughter. “Why are you laughing?”

Rodan gradually stopped. “Should’ve seen this coming.” Steam clouded his vision as he blinked. “Of course the only moment you deem me worth looking at is when you want to break me.”

“What? No!” San exclaimed, Rodan sending him a skeptical look. “I mean, at first, but things have changed since then! We... we like having you around.” He admitted. “You... you’re like the brightest, biggest, hottest star in the universe, and your presence alone beckons us to get closer and closer, regardless of the risk of getting burnt, just for the chance to bask into your light.”

“... what the fuck are you talking about?”

“What I’m trying to say is...” San grabbed Rodan’s hand, his face warming up at that. “We actually like having you around. You’re like a beacon, and we don’t want to lose sight of you.”

Rodan shook his head curtly, tugging his hand away from San’s as the blush on his face lessened. “Why should I believe you!? You literally just admitted to trying to mentally break me in order to make me a slave!”

“True. We’ve snuffed out bigger flames than yours before.” San admitted. “But none were ever as bright as you. We don’t want to snuff you out anymore: we want you to be our lantern!... you know what a lantern is, right?”

Rodan hesitantly nodded. “Like a torch, but smaller?”

San nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, they’re pretty similar! To be honest, I don’t think we’d be able to snuff you out, no matter what we try. Next best thing is feeding your flame and having you light the way to our conquest.” Rodan frowned in confusion at that.

“I thought you wanted to kill the planet?”

San giggled. “What, did one of the Moths tell you that?” 

Rodan nodded hesitantly. “Yeah, Mothra did.”

“Come _on_ , firebird. We’re not going to destroy the planet we’re hiding on! That would be very stupid. We just want to adapt it to our needs, and, uh...” he hissed through gritted teeth. “We can’t really help it if all humans are gonna die. Beside, we can’t control something if we destroy it at the first opportunity.”

Rodan sighed, closing his eyes and turning away from San. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense...”

“You want to know what we were going to tell you?” San asked in a low voice. “What we thought would break you before you showed us nothing can?” Rodan frowned, but nodded nonetheless, convinced nothing Ghidorah could tell him would make him change his mind. _Oh, how wrong he was._ “We’re not the ones who killed your island and your friend.”

“Yeah, I figured out you didn’t destroy my island, it’s why I’m so confused- wait. You guys didn’t kill Godzilla?” He asked, filled with confusion. San nodded. “But... you three hate him.”

“Exactly. If we had killed him, Ni would’ve swam after his corpse to take his head as a trophy.” San told him, Rodan humming in answer. “The ones who killed them... are humans.”

“What!?” He exclaimed, somehow sitting up in surprise without waking Ichi up. “But how- humans are so tiny-”

“Do you remember what I told you, back in the soul realm?” San asked, blinking slowly. “Weaker beings fear what they don’t understand. If _you_ don’t understand how you cheated death, how are beings as puny as humans supposed to understand anything about you, let alone your people?”

Rodan had nothing to say to that. Especially since he knew _exactly_ what San was talking about. Humans that were both very brave and very stupid, usually the ones that could not Hear them, often led groups to kill them. And sometimes, they succeeded at least partially in their campaign. But that didn't explain Mara. “I- but how did they-?”

“With machines.” The only answer to that was an incredibly confused frown. “Look, for now, go back to sleep, okay?” San asked, putting a hand on Rodan’s shoulder and forcing him to lay back down. As he was about to retort, Ghidorah gently shushed him. “We’ll give you proof in the morning.”

-

[Telling him what we’re doing was a really stupid move.]

(I know. But his main problem with us until now is that he thought we killed one of his friends and his nest. He now knows we didn’t, and is questioning whether or not we actually want to destroy the planet. I took a calculated risk.)

{And you’re better at math than I remember you being. The biggest setback with this change is that we’ll have to wait longer before enveloping the planet in a storm for good, make an active effort in keeping it alive... Until our dear fire bird dies, that is.}

[Oh... I suppose we _could_ wait just a few more millenias before leaving. I mean, we’ve already stayed on this planet for... what, forty thousand years?]

(Around that, yeah! And uh... I don’t know about you two, but I think I want Rodan to stay around for as long as possible.)

{Seconded, actually. He’s entertaining. Having him as an enraged flag bearer will be interesting.}

[You two should be more careful. You’ll end up getting attached and thinking you owe him something.]

{You’re the one getting language lessons from him. If one of us is going to end thinking they owe fire bird something, it’s you.}

[What-]

(~ Ni owes Rodan ~ Ni owes Rodan ~ Ni owes Ro-)

[I don’t owe him shit!]

{Are you protesting us waiting until he dies a death unrelated to us, then?}

[... No.]

{Then it’s settled. Rodan shall be kept alive, and act as our champion.}


	30. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look around three pairs in Castle Bravo a few minutes before the beginning of the end.

“Ishiro, do you know where-” Vivienne entered the head scientist’s office, frowning when she saw him hunched over his notes. “Ishiro?”

He raised his head. “Oh, Vivienne. Can I help you with something?” When it was just the two of them, using each other’s first name was acceptable.

“Do you have the files on the ‘Adam’ specimen? They’re not in my office, and I’m pretty sure you’re the last one I showed them to. Chen thinks he might be related to Godzilla in some form, and we want to check if their bone structures are similar.”

Ishiro nodded, getting up from his desk and opening a drawer, the one where he kept miscellaneous files. He picked one up, opening it to make sure before nodding and handing it to his friend. “There you go. What does Chen mean by ‘related in some form’?”

“If they have the same attributes, if not outright related by blood.” She answered, looking through the file herself. She then raised her head. “And you’ve been ruminating in your notes again, haven’t you?”

“Ever so perceptive...” He sighed wearily. “I know you don’t think the same, but... I can’t help but feel I should’ve never started those researches in the first place.

Vivienne immediately shook her head, grabbing Ishiro by the shoulders and turning him toward her. “No, no- you started those researches in hopes of finding a way to get rid of radioactive waste and harmful radiations- do not blame yourself for discovering something else entirely!”

“It’s my fault if Godzilla is dead. I should’ve never brought it with us to Isla de Mara-”

“You brought it in hope that it would kill Ghidorah. It’s not your fault that soldier disobeyed you and launched the bomb.”

“But _I’m_ the one who created it.” Ishiro answered. “They would’ve never been able to kill Godzilla if it hadn’t been for me. Let’s face the facts, Vivienne: I tried to create a way to get rid of radioactive waste, and I ended up creating... _this_.” He despaired, turning to his notes. “An oxygen destroyer.”

Vivienne was about to say something, trying to reassure him, when the door suddenly slammed opened. The two turned toward a panting, frazzled Coleman. He looked like he had ran there. She frowned. “What is it?”

He raised his eyes toward them, still breathing frantically. “You two need to come down to the control room _now_.”

* * *

“Okay, so.” Emma started, turned toward her husband. “Monarch is willing to provide me a lawyer for the upcoming trial, Florès is willing to act as a witness, and Madison is probably going to be called as one too. Now, I just need to find a reason that the judge would be willing to listen to...”

“You could plead for guilty under momentary insanity.” Mark proposed. “Your daughter was in active danger, you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere, you stole something from a colleague who would’ve given the thing to you if you had asked, and you knocked out a helicopter pilot. All of this could be used to show you weren’t in your right state of mind.”

“Yes, that could work...” Emma took a deep breath. “You’re sure you’re going to be able to handle everything with my sentence?”

“Please stop being so pessimistic, we’ll figure it out-”

“Mark,” Emma cut him off. “I actively helped in freeing a potential world-ending threat, _and_ the American government is in a hurry to find a scapegoat for the T.L.F. disaster. Even if I get a not guilty verdict, I’m not getting out of this without at least being neck deep in debt, and I might not be able to help with Madison for a while.”

“Yeah, it’s not like you were helping much to begin with.” Mark muttered under his breath, catching his wife off-guard.

“What’s that supposed to mean!?”

“That you’ve let this job consume your entire life!” Mark snapped back. “Ever since you started working for Monarch five years ago, I’ve practically had to raise Madison by myself-”

“I’m not working at Castle Bravo every single hour of my life!”

“You work in the middle of the Bermuda, and we live in San Francisco! The closest we get to enjoying your company on your off-days is you giving us a video-call-”

**ALL MONARCH PERSONNEL IS ASKED TO THE CONTROL ROOM: WE HAVE A CODE TITANOMACHY. I REPEAT, WE HAVE A CODE TITANOMACHY.**

Emma and Mark paused, the intercom’s interruption killing the momentum of their argument, Emma in horror, Mark in cautious confusion. She sighed, heading out of the room. “We’ll talk about this later.”

* * *

Madison turned away from her sketch, raising an eyebrow at the creepy chuckle that left Florès. “What are you doing?”

“Serizawa told me to make the T.L.F.’s life a living hell if I want to keep my paycheck, so I’m hard at work cooking up a _lovely_ virus for them.” He answered with a smile. “I’m also trying to turn my ‘esteemed’ rival to our side over emails, and she’s reacting by calling me a hack.”

“Aren’t you?”

“There’s a difference between being a hack and being a hacker, Russellita.” There was a pause as he momentarily turned away from his computer. “And what’re _you_ doing?”

She smiled, turning her sketchbook toward Florès. A drawing of Godzilla resting on Mothra’s lap faced him “Sketching some Titans.”

He aww-ed. “Are they a couple? I didn’t know they were a couple.”

“Yeah, I think they might be.” Madison answered, putting her sketchbook down. “I’m trying to use my dreams to find them, but all I can get is that they’re in some kind of underground temple...”

“I have to go tell Coleman latter today that I’m pretty much finished with the current ORCA model.” Florès informed her, jerking his thumb toward the small, laptop-like device. “I could relay the info, if you want. That and that Godzilla is still alive.” Madison nodded, the two returning to their respective activities.

He quickly checked his emails to check if Kane had answered his latest taunt, only to narrow his eyes as he saw that a certain _very dangerous person_ had answered something he had sent last night. He opened the email, sighing in relief when he saw his proposal had been accepted. He just needed to send them more information on the assignment and they’d come right over-

A deafening, shrill sound filled the room, forcing Florès to cover his ears in shock. As he uncovered his ears, looking around the room as wondered where the sound came from, he saw Madison’s body on the ground. “Russellita!” He rushed to her side, checking for her pulse (and sighing in relief when he did) when he realized _she_ was the one that had screamed.

He picked her up, rushing outside of his office, when the intercom turned on. He initially groaned in annoyance, before remembering what Code Titanomachy stood for.

Titans were up, and they were _mad_.


	31. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rodan switches sides.

_**Earlier that day...** _

“But come on, it’s fun! And it _works_!”

“That doesn’t change the fact that my headaches have been getting worse lately, and you and Ni smashing things on my head to either get my attention or as petty vengeance for telling what to do doesn’t help.” Ichi started, rubbing the bridge of his nose as San whined.

Rodan turned toward from the rock he was sitting on. “Wouldn’t have expected you to get headaches.”

Ichi turned toward him, momentarily startled. Rodan hadn’t said anything since last night, and had kept his eyes on them the entire time they were debating on who was going to go retrieve what they pretty sure was a bomb- they had settled on Ni-, and they were now waiting for their brother to come back, Rodan perched on a rock not far away and looking out at sea.

Ichi eventually nodded. “It’s a stress thing. And you don’t realize how much proving to you we’re _not_ lying is stressful.” Rodan hummed in response, turning back toward the sea with a frustrated expression.

Just in time to see Ni coming out of the water, flipping his braid out of the way and dragging something metallic behind him. He trudged out of the water and up to them, stopping a few feet to flip the object in front of him before crossing his arms. “There’s something wrong with that thing, but I can’t put my finger on it. Thoughts?”

Ichi frowned, bringing the shell closer. “... it’s a bomb.” He finally realized. “Humans made a bomb that can suck out the life of their planet.”

“How?”

“You know how planet with life on them have this... thing in the air? The thing that the life actually breathes?” Ichi asked Ni, who nodded. He ripped one of the components out. A broken, transparent box with a crumpled spherical object in it where the explosives should’ve been. “ _That_ was used to destroy it.”

“Hey, uh...” San started hesitantly. “... had the Xiliens figured how to do tha-”

The trio froze as Rodan got off of his rock, crawling on all four toward them. How he was so comfortable with his own bestiality, they’d never know. He slowly moved to where they were, hesitantly looking at what was left of the bomb. He then breathed in the air, eyes closed in concentration, before they blew wide open in shock. 

Death on this planet had a _very_ distinctive scent, and there was no doubt he was able to say where it was coming from. “So... still believe humans can’t cause wide-scale destruction?” San asked, tilting toward an horrified Rodan.

Horror slowly shifted to anger. “Those vermins...” He muttered, fists balling as heat started rising. “Was it not enough for them to rip away everything I had for me once!?” He roared, black smoke exiting his mouth, a sudden burst of heat melting the ground under his claws.

He gasped, the temperature going back to something bearable. Ghidorah was watching him, looks of confusion, surprise and concern was all over their face. One of them started coming near him, and he gave into fear, letting the wind carry him away from them. He needed to think.

San made a move to start following him, but Ichi taking a hold of his arm stopped him. {Let him be.} They watched as the distant silhouette removed layers of clothing, before jumping into the volcano’s mouth. {We’ve given him a lot to think about.}

Ni hummed in agreement, before frowning as he saw something glitter, back on the the rock where Rodan sat. He walked up to it, frowning as he saw the necklace he had given a while ago. He picked it up, twirling the shard in his fingers as he looked up to the top of the volcano. What would their firebird do?

It took until the sun was starting to disappear over the horizon for Ni to get his answer. A sudden, screeching _call_ sounded for them, snapping the three out of their laziness. He immediately snapped his head up toward the mouth of the volcano. Despite the black smoke that had started rising, he could still make him out. [Rodan’s calling us.]

San immediately floated up, holding the necklace tight in his fist as he dragged Ichi up. (Come on, brother Ichi, let’s go!)

{Yes, yes. No need to be impatient.} He told him, floating up as well and taking Ni’s hand. He opened a portal, allowing them to appear just a short distance away from where Rodan was sitting. He was currently dressing himself. Ichi started talking. “Firebird-”

“ _Wait_. You three wait _here_.” Rodan told them, still not facing them. For some reason, they obeyed, floating there, watching as Rodan finished dressing, before getting up and turning toward them. They nearly flinched at blazing fury in his gaze.

“...Are you mad at us?” San asked in a far too small voice. “You left your necklace behind...” Neither of the three would admit to sagging in relief when Rodan shook his head, his frown lessening by a small bi.

“Not at you three.” He then added.

“Then what is it?” Ichi asked. He frowned as Rodan extended his hand. He looked at his face, searching for any sign of what was going through his head, but the only thing those yellow eyes betrayed was cold rage.

“I will let you go, on one condition: you help me get my revenge on humans, and I will help you claim the throne.” Ichi’s eyes widened at that, as both Ni and San snapped his head toward him, waiting for their leader’s decision.

“Excuse me?”

“You let me help you destroy humanity.” Rodan repeated. “And in exchange, I will light the way and pave the road to the throne for you three to claim.”

Ichi closed his eyes, letting thoughts run through his head. 

He could almost _touch_ San’s giddiness. The initial plan had worked beyond all hope, and that their dear little firebird would be the one heralding their conquest for all to ear was the icing on his cake.

In contrast, Ni’s recurring paranoia was almost silent. There was the doubt of how far his loyalty would go, but Rodan’s loyalty itself was unquestioned, if only because Ni knew how far wrath could carry one.

As for Ichi himself... Rodan had more than proved himself. If he could survive his nest dying, and not break down in despair no matter what, it already made him preferable to every single one of their former associates.

And that wasn’t counting on the sickly sweet satisfaction of one of the former weak king’s friends becoming their servant. Ichi composed himself. “We accept your offer, _Rodan_.” He put his hand in his, his brothers following suit by putting their on top of his.

Rodan nodded, bringing Ghidorah closer and allowing them to stand on the rocky surface. Before Ichi could say anything, he _knelt_ , voice dropping to a whisper. “I swear my body, mind and soul to you. From now on, I solely dedicate myself to paving the way to your conquest. And if you deem my work inadequate, then I shall lay my neck bare to your fangs. King Godzilla is dead, long live King Ghidorah.”

 _King Ghidorah_. Oh, how Ichi _loved_ the sound of that one. “Fire bird, look at us.” Rodan raised his head, looking at the three of them with something close to _adoration_. His brothers were clearly affected by it, Ni lowering his guard at the look, and San was barely not bouncing on the spot. Ichi allowed himself to smile. “No need to be so uptight.”

“You’re the King, now.” He answered. His voice had taken a low, smoky quality to it, probably in an attempt to make his voice seem softer, submissive even. Ichi had to strangle off a purr at it. “The least I can do is show reverence.”

“Perhaps when we’re in private.” NI started, bending down to put his hand under Rodan’s chin. “But you didn’t show reverence to the former king when others were watching, and you shall do the same to us, understood?” Rodan nodded, letting Ni drag him up. “Good.”

San was the next to move, wrapping his hands around behind their servant’s neck. “You dropped this earlier.” He said softly, tying the necklace around his neck. Rodan hummed softly, bending his head and lifting his hair out of the way. San giggled, bringing his hand to Rodan’s cheek. “Good boy~”

Ichi took a few steps back. “For your first order... how about you get us back into reality?” The sudden wind that blew around them nearly startled him.

Rodan looked at them, still looking so very vulnerable despite doing something that, in any other context, would be an intimidation display. “Anything else?”

“Where did the humans in the flying machines come from?” San asked, grabbing Rodan by the shoulder, circling him and effectively turning him around so he was facing the horizon. “Approximatively speaking.”

That hardened him right back up, eyes sharpening as his gaze locked onto whatever they could see of the land from the Island. “They came from further up North. There’s powerful Titans that live on this continent, if I remember properly.”

Ni raised an eyebrow at that, taking a few steps forward. “ _Which_ powerful Titans? We need to know which ones we’re going to be controlling.”

“Behemoth, the forest’s protector. Scylla, the ice sculptor.” _Scylla_? Oh, they hadn’t even started their conquest and it was already looking like tons of fun. “Godzilla was in the middle of culling the beetles when hibernation started, so there should be a few left alive.”

Ni narrowed his eyes. “Are the beetles dangerous?”

“They were able to kill one of Goji’s sister. It’s what prompted the culling.” Rodan answered. “There is also Camazotz, the night bringer. And finally... Methuselah, Guardian of the Earth.”

San perked up at that. “One of Terra’s Guardian?”

Rodan nodded, turning back toward them. “Yes. I doubt I’d be able to wake him up, however. We’re of the same standing. Only a King he would recognize can control him.”

Ghidorah chuckled. “Don’t worry about that, firebird~” Ichi purred. “You won’t be the one waking them up. We will be.”

“Our songs don’t work like your calls.” Ni stated. “Whoever hears us _has_ to listen. You’re the exception that proves the rule, and we know how to carry our voice.”

“This said...” San cheerfully started, grabbing Rodan by the hand and making him spin until he was facing the horizon again, his arms wrapped around him. He could feel the smaller one tense, and what he could see of his face had flushed to glowing orange. “If you want to sing with us, we wouldn’t complain~”

“I doubt I’d be able to add anything.” Rodan started, shrugging out of San’s grasp. “I’m still pretty new at this whole Call thing- AH!”

Ichi chuckled as he lifted Rodan high in the air, sticking his hip out and sitting him on it. “Once again, you’re not the one waking them up, firebird. We are. We’d just like you to lend us your anger.”

“Just because we can draw on other’s emotions to do our bidding doesn’t mean it’s easy.” Ni added, taking Rodan out of Ichi’s arms and putting him back on the ground, turning him back toward the horizon. “It’s easier to force them.”

“All we need is for you to lend us your anger, and we’ll take care of the rest.” San finished. “You write the lyrics, and we compose the tune, if you may.”

“... so I just have to sing with you.” Rodan repeated, Ghidorah nodding as they dragged him close to them again. “... Alright. I’ll try.” He closed his eyes, thinking of everything humans had taken from him, and where his loyalty currently lied. And then he opened his mouth, a discordant melody of wrath and pain and vengefulness and promise poured out of it.

And then Ghidorah _sang_.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment! ^^ They keep me going.


End file.
